#and i finally figured out what i want gareth’s dog to be like to here he is

[daggerbeanart]

normal evening at fen’s house

doggo :]

#dragon age #da2 #dragon age 2 #fenris #hawke #oc: gareth hawke #m!hawke #oc: vagabond #mabari #da fanart #dragon age fanart #I’m not immune to the choreography banter lol #just needed something to get me to practice #and i finally figured out what i want gareth’s dog to be like to here he is #his name is vagabond (bon for short) #he got it when he roamed around as a puppy until the hawke fam adopted him #(either from malcolm or gareth idk yet)

[panickinganakin]

stepping stones to hell ch. 7 (ronance fic)

hello!! all previous chapters can be found here!

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Robin stood inside her bathroom, staring into the mirror trying to curl her hair. Though she was rather good with rollers, she wasn’t that great with a curling iron. She could never figure out how to not crease her hair with the clamp. Unfortunately for her, the rollers had been left in her bag on the tour bus.

She tried hard to not burn her hands. She pinched strands of her hair with the very tips of fingers. “Ah,” she shook her hand around as if air would cure the burn she managed to get on the side of her pinky. “Shit.” 

After her bedroom, the bathroom was her second favorite room in the house. Her and Gareth had painted it a dark forest green with shimmery gold trim. She had loved antique shopping so she spent almost two months searching for the perfect mirror. The one she had settled on was an oblong shape. The frame was metal wrapped ivy that was a tarnished gold color. She had hung so it was standing tall rather than wide. 

Steve had helped mount shelves on the wall behind her after they had used metallic spray paint to match the mirror's color. The finishing piece had been the canvas she had hung across from the toilet. It was a cartoon fox playing a guitar but his shirt said ‘Fuck the System’. She had scored that gem sitting against a dumpster in New York after a show. She could never guess why someone would have thrown it out but she felt lucky it was hers. 

She finally finished her hair then decided to add some eyeliner. For her outfit she had decided on a black skirt with her beloved Bowie shirt. 

Before walking out the door she had grabbed her bucket hat. It was a Jurassic Park hat and she had been waiting to wear it just for this occasion. Even if it was a gawky yellow and green to match the park’s vehicle, she didn’t mind. She had seen it in the window of a movie prop shop in California and knew she had to have it for her collection.

Luckily for Robin, finding Nancy’s house wasn’t that bad. She had only taken one wrong turn but realized it before she got lost. When she pulled up Nancy was outside sitting on her steps. She stood up quickly, grabbing her bag. 

She was wearing a floral mid length skirt but had paired it with a graphic t-shirt that said ‘I Heart My Pet T-Rex’. “Hey!” She said enthusiastically. 

“Nancy Wheeler, I am literally begging you to tell me where you got your shirt.” 

She clicked her seatbelt and let out a laugh, “I knew you’d enjoy it even though it doesn’t match the skirt.” 

“I especially love it for that reason.” She backed out of the driveway carefully, “So?” 

“Oh,” she sucked a breath in, “Don’t be mad, okay? I got it from a thrift store. For all we know it’s one of a kind.” 

“I guess I’ll have to rob you. I need it for my collection.” 

“What collection?” Though she wasn’t looking at her, Robin knew Nancy had raised an eyebrow when asking. 

“I have a silly shirt collection. Every stop of the tour where we have time to dick around I find a thrift store and buy the most ridiculous shirt I can find.” 

“No way,” she half snorted. “I would love to see it someday.”

“Because you have an interest or because you’re jealous and want to rob me?” 

“Excuse me?” she pretended to sound offended. 

Robin glanced at her, “Well if I show you where I live, who’s gonna stop you from breaking in when I’m on tour? Imagine the heartbreak I would feel coming home to find my ‘I shoved a hot dog in my ass in New York and all I got was this shirt’ t-shirt missing? Well, Nance let me just tell you, it would be worse than heartbreak. It would be, like, devastation.” 

She could see Nancy’s mouth crack into a grin but she also looked a bit shocked. “You’re joking. You don’t have a shirt that says that.” 

Robin shrugged, “Guess you’ve never been to New York.” 

“I have but I didn’t get a shirt when I did it.”

Robin couldn’t stop her mouth from dropping. She couldn’t believe Nancy Wheeler had a dirty sense of humor. They both laughed and Robin shook her head, “That was inappropriate.” 

She acted as if she were offended, “You started that and then set me up for the line. That’s on you.” They laughed again then Nancy pointed, “Oh! Take that road, it’s a shortcut.” 

Robin turned on her blinker, following her instructions. One thing Robin enjoyed most about the fall was the setting sooner. She loved early nights. “It’s a blood moon tomorrow,” Nancy said as if she had read Robin’s thoughts about the sky. 

“Oh shit. Really? That’s so cool, too bad I’ll be kicking ass on stage in Michigan.”

“I’ll take a picture for you.”

“Are you a photographer now too? Did you pick that up from Jonathan?” Robin didn’t mean to say it, it just sort of happened. But once it was out she realized she hadn’t asked about Jonathan. She knew the two of them had split up shortly before Robin had left Hawkins. The two had gone their separate ways but Robin didn’t really know what he was up to.

Nancy laughed which made Robin feel better about bringing him up. “Please. I just mean a little disposable camera. I could never work that thing like Jonathan does.”

“How is he by the way? If you don’t mind me asking… Unless you don’t want to talk about it of course.”

Robin could see Nancy look out the window but she started, “He’s good actually. I saw him last year when I was in California for an interview. We met up for coffee. He works for himself as a photographer but I think he wants to do movie promo. He said he had dabbled in it but it’s hard making a place for yourself in a city so big. Not that he couldn’t do it. Jon’s very talented. He just gets in his own way.” She paused for a moment then looked over. 

Robin glanced at her for a second not wanting to take her eyes off the road for too long. “Hopper and Joyce got married. El and Will are both in school for film. El picked up an interest in special effects and Will wants to do script writing. He’s always been so full of ideas. They actually go to school in Illinois. They all share an apartment here.” Nancy paused to think, “Dustin and Lucas are both going school for science. Lucas is going to Notre Dame with a full ride. Max is actually working in gaming. I’m trying to set something up with her soon.” 

This conversation had hit Robin in the gut. She forgot just how much she missed everyone. Even though she stayed busy most of the time she also had Steve which was like having a piece of her old life always with her. She never stopped to think about what all she truly left behind. “What about Erica?”

“She graduates in May. The last time I talked to Lucas he said she had a lot of schools looking at her. She basically has her pick.” 

Robin smiled at that. She would never forget meeting Erica and the danger that followed shortly after. She was always so smart and strong minded. She wasn’t surprised to hear she was doing well. She wasn’t surprised that all of them were doing good. They were an intelligent group of kids, even if they had been smart asses. “It’s crazy. Sometimes I never really slow down to think about how much time has passed. Sometimes when I wake up I still expect to be surrounded by posters of Star Wars and Madonna. Seventeen all over again. It takes me a moment to realize just how much has happened,” Robin stated.

“I think that’s part of the trauma. Like time passes by fast, that’s true. However I think after what we all went through… I mean we had no choice but to keep ourselves distracted. At first it was like living to forget everything but soon you sort of do. Sometimes, when I take a step back from everything, I feel seventeen again. I feel like I’m watching everyone around me suffer and I think about it all. But I blink and it’s like I’m back to work.” Nancy had grown quieter with every confession.

There were things Robin never spoke about out loud. It was exactly what Nancy had said. She had done so much to forget so bringing them makes them real again. “I know exactly what you mean. I still have nightmares sometimes.”

Nancy glanced over at Robin. They pulled into the parking lot of the movie theater. Neither one of them moved first. Robin knew what the upon request was. Once they exited the car they would resume as normal. The past would be the past again. “I do too,” Nancy confessed. 

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Robin pulled her door handle to put Nancy at ease. She noticed Nancy’s chest fall with relief before she too stepped out of the car. “Man, I haven’t been to a theater in ages,” she said, joining Robin in stride. 

The two walked toward the front of the building, “Me either! I can’t wait. Ugh. Movie theater popcorn means everything to me,” Robin said excitedly. 

“What do you miss most when you’re on the road?” Nancy asked as the two waited in line at the ticket window. 

“Hmm,” she tilted her head in thought. What did Robin miss the most? “Usually I would say my bed but I think I miss the overall normalcy of being home. Traveling and playing shows is so much fun. And even though the routine when you’re out on the road feels so chaotic there’s hardly any spontaneity. Like, wanting to go to the movies at the last minute? Nope. Deciding to stay in and cook cheap food and watch the Goonies? Nope. You miss being able to do normal things that would usually seem mundane.” 

Nancy looked as if she was thinking Robin’s words over carefully. “I think sometimes we have to make sacrifices to be happy. Because I mean, if we’re being honest, what do you think you’d be doing if not music? Were you wanting to go to college beforehand?”

Robin knew exactly what Nancy meant. She had thought about it before, many times. She had no idea what she would be doing if she weren’t playing in Corroded Coffin. “Uhm, I think I did? I mean, my parents wanted that for me. I don’t really know what I would have done. I didn’t know that back then either. I probably would have picked a major without much consideration just because I would have panicked about taking too long. Maybe I would have become a teacher. Can you picture me in a classroom?”

Nancy laughed softly while shaking her head, “No. Not really. Maybe like a summer camp counselor?” 

Robin scoffed, “What is that supposed to mean?”

She laughed again, “Well, I mean just mean, your bucket hat and previous cargo shorts. Not to mention your lame t-shirts. It’s all camp counselor vibes.”

Robin’s jaw dropped and she acted like she was offended. “You’re cruel.”

They stepped up to the ticket window and Robin paid for their tickets to the movie. As they stepped through the double doors Nancy tilted her head, “I’m only joking. I don’t know though. I think being a drummer suits you so well. It’s hard to imagine anything else but maybe something in art. Can you draw?”

“Nope, not even a stick figure.”

“Really? Shocking. You have such an artsy personality.” 

They stepped toward the concessions together where Nancy purchased a large popcorn and two sodas. “Oh, okay. I got it. You probably would have tried working in film right? Maybe behind the camera? Or set design? You love movies.”

“This is true,” Robin took the drink Nancy offered her. “I think working on film sets would be fun. A little hectic, but probably fun. What would you have done? Was there ever anything besides writing you thought about?”

They made their way into the room they had been directed towards. It was still dimly lit with only a handful of others scattered about. They made their way to the top, Nancy still thinking about her answer. “I don’t know. Writing is something I have been passionate about for as long as I can remember. I know my mom and I discussed the medical field once but I don’t think I would like being a nurse. Maybe I would own a bookstore somewhere. Just something comfy but something I would still enjoy.”

The lights went out completely and the screen in front of them came to life. They sat through the trailers, sharing the popcorn before the movie finally started. 

The two sat through the movie, sharing popcorn and looks of shock or amazement during the scenes that had blown them away. It had been everything Robin had hoped and more. During the scene where Ellie had restored power and the dino had jumped from behind her, Nancy had let out a gasp of horror before clutching Robin’s arm. “Holy shit!” she whispered, trying to laugh it off quietly only to lose her composure when Ellie had grabbed Mr.Arnold’s arm. 

The scene that had gotten Robin was the one with Tim and Lex in the kitchens with the velociraptors. 

As they made their way back to the car Nancy had let out a loud breath, “You know. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting; however, I didn’t think it was gonna be that suspenseful! It was kind of scary!”

“Honestly it was so good. I definitely get all the talk! Thank you for coming with me!” She stepped toward the passenger side of the car to open the door for Nancy. Nancy slid in before Robin shut the door and got in the car herself. 

“I’m really glad you invited me! I don’t get out much aside from work. Usually I’m working at home too, though.”

“I wish I had known sooner you were living so close. Tour is going to be over in like three weeks so maybe we can hang out again?”

“I think that would be a great idea! Maybe we can make seeing movies together a normal thing for us!” 

“Ohhh, I would love that. Steve and Eddie? Terrible at sitting through a movie. Probably the worst movie date ever.” 

Nancy laughed, “I can see that.” 

Robin took the road that she had turned down on the drive to the theater. Nancy tapped the armrest between the two of them. It was completely dark now but luckily there was no lack of street light. “So, I’ll call you Tuesday?”

“Huh? Oh, the article. Yeah! I should have the first draft by then. I’m hoping the photos will be developed tomorrow when I get in. I’m excited to see what we have to work with.” 

Robin’s cheeks flushed at the thought of the photos. She looked good that day but that didn’t make her any nervous to see them herself. “Promise me if I look dumb you’ll throw them out and just do the story. No photos.” 

“What? No! You looked so fucking good! Don’t worry, Robin. This is gonna be so badass, I promise.”

Robin let out a sigh of relief, “I trust you.” She finally said. 

“Good, it’s literally my job.” 

There was a moment of comfortable silence before Robin pulled into Nancy’s driveway. “You can call me anytime, by the way. Not just on Tuesday. I get lonely here, it’s nice having friends.” 

“Ooh, that reminds me!” Robin fished around her center console, finding an old receipt and pen. She scribbled her number down and handed it to Robin. “Obviously you won’t be able to call me while I’m gone. But, when I’m back, call me when you’re free!” 

“Great,” Nancy smiled big, sliding the paper down into her bag. She reached for the door handle then paused, “How tired are you?” 

“I’m not?” Robin responded with a raised eyebrow. 

“Do you want to go to Painter’s Port?” She asked. When Robin gave her a questioning look she continued with an explanation. “Painter’s Port is a lake a few miles away. Not even really a port which is funny they call it that. It’s not even really a lake. It’s really a good sized pond. But, it’s usually pretty empty at night. It's a nice place to look at the stars.” 

Robin thought about it for a moment. She had to be up at five to leave for the bus but she could try to nap while they drove. It would be at least three weeks before she got to see Nancy again. Saying no would be silly and also make her a bad friend. “Will you drive? I don’t like driving at night and since you know where it is…?” Robin trailed off, shrugging her shoulders. 

Nancy’s face split into a smile and she nodded, “Of course! First, let me go grab a blanket and some wine!” 

Robin watched as Nancy bounced up her driveway and disappeared into her house. She scooted over into the passenger seat and smiled to herself. She really enjoyed Nancy’s company and it was obvious Nancy enjoyed hers. She wouldn’t have wanted to extend their time out together had she not, right? 

After a few short moments Nancy exited the house holding two bottles of wine and a blanket. She slid into the driver's seat, dropping the contents of her arms into Robin’s lap. “Ready?” She was smiling excitedly so Robin nodded at her with genuine happiness. “Let’s go,” she said before pulling out of her driveway. 

#ronance #stepping stones #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #robin and nancy #the fruity four #fruity four #steddie confirmed #corroded coffin #stranger things #stranger things fic #st4 #robin buckley fic #nancy wheeler fic #robin buckley and nancy wheeler

[space-city-traffic]

it’s time for another one of my patented Unnecessarily Long Silt Verses Metas! the subject of this one is: i just relistened to episode 4, because it’s probably my favorite episode in the whole series, and now i have just so many questions. so!

worldbuilding questions:

what is the generally accepted attitude toward queerness in-universe? i initially thought it was sort of a juno-steel-esque world where we assume everybody’s just chill with it. it’s never remarked upon that the farmer has a husband in ep3, and everyone respects Vaughn’s pronouns in the professional world. but this episode seems to trouble that a little, since Carpenter’s aromanticism is not understood or respected by Todd, as well as a whole line of other people. so what’s the overarching consensus?

how complex are prayer marks, on average? ive been picturing them as looking like the tsv logo. but in this episode, we learn that a prayer mark on the elk corpse is a triangle, three lines, and a circle. maybe prayer marks look more like those six figures on the internal hexagon of the logo?

do cell phones exist in the world of tsv?? it seems like Carpenter has no way of contacting Faulkner to get him to pick her up early. and toward the end, Charity asks Gareth if there’s a landline in the spooky house, implying that they would need it to call for help. also, in earlier episodes, we have our main two having to use a hotel pay phone to call Mason. so im realizing that cell phones probably aren’t common, at the very least.

(the discord server i’m in took that information, plus the fact that emails do exist as of episode 8, and suggested that tsv is just set in a really fucked up version of the 90’s complete with tracksuits and butterfly hair clips. do with that as you will.)

thematic questions:

there’s a lot of similarity between the way Carpenter describes the faith of Pendas’ Slake and the way she describes the Trawlerman. she describes the first snare she finds as “The wire is wound like a fishing lure,” she talks about the twin faces of the elk-saint in the same way as the twin faces of the Trawlerman, and she tells us that her blood from the chase “Runs like a river.” so uh what’s that about??? also, she was seeking for a river cult when she found this. which is clearly different, but has a lot of uncanny echoes. so what’s that about??????

this might not be intentional, but this episode is the first of two times we hear bridges associated with romance. Todd propositions Carpenter on a bridge, and in the next episode, Hayward rambles about a cult of romantic couples and locks on a bridge. not sure if there’s anything there, but if the motif keeps happening in the future, i may have to look a little closer.

do snare dogs count as saints or angels of Charity’s faith? the elk of birch and bone is clearly a saint, since that’s a transformation. but were the snare dogs once people, too? or are they like the crab dog sentinel that Faulkner describes as an angel in episode 8?

either way, it’s very interesting to me how differently Charity interacts with them. there’s a ton of fear in how Carpenter and Faulkner engage with saints of their faith, and the angel actively decks Faulkner the moment he fumbles the canvass. but the snare dogs are described as nuzzling around Charity in almost affection. not sure what the difference is, but it feels interesting.

thoughts on Carpenter’s faith:

she describes herself and her river as “lonely” over and over again. she’s the only one to describe it like that, everyone else sees it as full of creatures and life! but she can’t see that aspect of it, only the wrath and destruction—she can’t imagine it not being like her.

(that’s why it’s interesting that hope comes when she sees Faulkner and knows she’s not alone at the end—the line “I’ve been seen” says it all. not sure how she’s gonna reconcile that in the long run.)

there’s this banger of a line that she drops when she talks about Todd thinking that she rejected him because of her faith: “As if faith had anything to do with who I was. With what I wanted, and didn’t want, my life to become.” which, like. that’s specifically in reference to her aromanticism but also like. Carpenter that is a very loaded statement. can you imagine Faulkner saying something like that???

actually it’s interesting—Faulkner very much loses himself in his faith, whereas Carpenter keeps a very distinct handle on who she is and what she thinks and wants out of this whole deal. so her faith is very different, because she’s such an individualist, and sometimes her stubborn insistence on Her Way bumps up against what the organized cult says. her faith really doesn’t influence what she wants out of the world. it’s kinda the other way around.

she burns her copy of the Silt Verses at the end. you guys. she burns her holy book. while praying. what the fuck. that’s iconic. but also what the fuck.

stupid questions:

how tf is Carpenter walking in any episodes after this??? she twists her ankle until there’s a crunch, and there’s a chunk taken out of her leg???? ma’am you shouldn’t be able to stand on that for a WHILE that’s probably at least a second degree rolled ankle i fear for your ligaments

how tf does a jaw look like a snare. how. a snare is like a noose of wire. how does that WORK

Carpenter was a lure for the Trawlerman’s faith???? sorry??? reminder that lures are: “Sweet-faced young acolytes who are sent out into the world, to hand out the flowers, whisper kind enticements, and lead the faithless into the sacrificial grounds”?????? i can not imagine that went well for Grumpy McCrow over here

(actually... could that be related to Todd and his ilk only seeing her as what they wanted her to be, wanting to find their meaning in her? maybe she took advantage of people willfully misunderstanding her, just like she takes advantage of people telling her their life stories. hmm. someone write a fic.)

im severely asexual, but after listening to Carpenter’s voice and cadences this whole episode—is this what sexy means??? i think i finally understand what sexy means. bless.

#long post #tsv #the silt verses #the silt verses meta #tsv meta #sister carpenter #carpenter tsv #Mallory glass #carpenter #the trawlerman #religion cw #cult cw

[shimmershae]

My thoughts on Episode 6--On the Inside

Very appropriate title by the way.  Works in a multitude of ways.  

As always, my randomness is going beneath a cut again to spare the eyeballs of those of you that don’t want to see it at all and also?  Help those of you that have somehow stayed spoiler-free in this brand-new age of early release episodes.  It is still so wild to me that I’m a full episode ahead of half the fandom.  I don’t know what I’m going to do when we get to the final episode and they decide to make us all suffer together--because somehow I do feel they will do exactly that after spoiling us for the first 23 episodes.  It is going to be agonizing.  

Anyway.  Without further ado, Shae’s stream of consciousness review (of sorts).  

Not fair, Angela.  Opening the episode with that shot of that big ass spider.  I hate those suckers.  So naturally, they’re an easy sell for setting the horror scene to me, lol.  

Okay.  Who the hell’s chasing Virgil and Connie?  Walker No-See-Ums?

Barely a minute in and the atmosphere for this episode is moody AF.  

What is this?  Tara Jr. The Walking Dead?  LOL.  Where’s the Scarlett for this mini plantation house?  Anyway.  First three minutes of this episode?  Just as attention grabbing as the first five episode openings this season.  I don’t think people out there are giving our writers enough love for that.  Every episode so far has opened like a mini movie.  

With the way the Walking Dead logo keeps crumbling away with each successive episode, somehow it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Carol and Daryl spinoff was eventually titled The Living and had flowers growing out of each letter, lol.  I mean, there would be a certain sort of life-affirming symmetry in a show that’s been promised to be much lighter in tone doing just that.  

More Carol and Aaron?  Yes, please.  I don’t necessarily like Carol staying at home and sitting the sidelines like a figurative happy little homemaker in the B story while the rest of the mains are trying like hell to sell the A story, but if she’s going to be totally prohibited from the main storyline until it’s time to blow shit up?  I’m going to continue enjoy getting to see her do what she should have been doing for seasons--interacting with others in the community, especially Aaron and the ladies.  

Truly.  I really am loving my girl getting some quality Aaron and Rosita time.  It’s so long overdue.  

Bless sweet Kelly.  Riding off to her sister’s rescue.  

Why isn’t Lydia shown as part of these plans?  For someone that could barely read last season, I doubt that big ass map was a piece of cake for her and it’s all just guesswork anyway without her guidance.  I mean, why does it feel like they are cutting some of this stuff that might not seem like much plot-wise but would go a long way toward establishing different character beats?  Personally, I would have loved to see her involved in the search and sharing scenes again with Carol and bonding with Kelly. 

Virgil be having that “I always feel like somebody’s watching me” feeling.  Don’t you hate that, lol?  

“You haven’t slept in days.”  But how many days, Virgil?  I’m going to need a number because I’m confused AF about this timeline at this point.  What we’re seeing and what different pieces of dialogue is telling us is not exactly lining up.  I’m going to find it awful hilarious if it hasn’t even been two weeks since the cave in.  For reasons.  

Connie’s spidey senses are clearly tingling.  

Alrighty, then.  She’s clearly got PTSD.  Understandable.  They’ve all had it.  Some have been treated more sympathetically than others, though.  

I mean, it never seems to cross anybody’s mind how Carol probably sees Henry’s head on that pike, Mika’s pale and bloody body, Lizzie crumpled face down in a bed of yellow flowers, Sophia with a smoking bullet hole through her undead head whenever she closes her eyes but whatever.  

Okay though.  But what if Connie had really shitty, impossible to read handwriting?  AKA doctor’s  handwriting.  What then?  

Leah’s face honestly twists my insides whenever I see it, lol.  It’s quiet a visceral thing.  No, that does not make me a horrible person.  Not everybody wants or has to drink the awesome, great, redeemable villainess Kool-Aid.  IMHO, she’s got a face meant for a Walker.  Perfect makeover idea.  Eh.  Mostly it’s her expression and the deadness of her eyes.  

Anyway.  Why is it always the fingers?  Eff that.  

Listen.  If ya’ll can’t tell Daryl’s conflicted AF with the situation he’s landed in, you don’t know how to read NR’s face and eyes.  He’s not a masterclass like MMB but he’s pretty darn good when he wants to be.  

I honestly feel sorry for Redshirt Frost.  

“You do what you gotta do.”  Frost knows what’s what and he’s willing to walk the walk for Maggie.  Impressive loyalty.  I’m left wondering how the current, colder incarnation of Maggie inspired it because I’m still struggling to see it.  Anywho.  My point is the dude knows the score and just gave Daryl the okay.  

Daryl taking off his angel vest before stepping into the role of torturer/interrogator=him shedding the persona/the man Judith and RJ and Lydia and Carol know him to be.  Pushing away his man of honor status so he can just survive somehow.  

Pope never quits chewing whatever the hell he’s got in his mouth.  It’s kind of distracting.  

Ohhh.  We’re back to the Haunted Mansion.  I mean house.  Where are the Hitchhiking Ghosts?  

All the eyes scratched out of those creepy pictures=spooky.  

The good old fogged up bathroom mirror shot.  Somebody’s been watching and studying their horror movies, lol.  Not gonna lie though.  I’m legit bracing myself for the jump scares I know have to be coming.  

I’m loving the music/score in these scenes.  

Truthfully, I could care less about these Reapers.  But they are hella attractive, lol.  Listen.  Angela knows what she’s doing.  

Kelly’s horse is so pretty.  Prayer chain for that baby.  

More dead horses?  Why?  

Connie’s slingshot?  Sorry.  I maintain, no matter how much I like these two, that they have the lamest weapons ever.  Endless supply of Virginia rocks or not.  

So.  Did Virgil and Connie enjoy a little equine for dinner?  Did they kill it before the Walkers fed?  What monsters!  Yeah, no.  Not if they were starving even if I personally could not have.  The more probable story is they fled the camp in a panic and left the horse behind and then it went down.  Sorry.  I didn’t exactly study the wounds on the poor animal because it is so traumatizing to me to continue to see them meet such dastardly ends on this show.  I don’t know who the hell has such a score to settle with horses but stop it.  

Days.  It’s only been days.  Not weeks.  So many times with all that Daryl and Company have had to contend with since the cave in?  Those do not exist, lol.  They’re just a convenient, appeasing piece of dialogue thrown at a fanbase primed and ready to read everything into not much of anything.  There’s just not been enough time for it to happen unless Daryl has literally been up 24/7 for all of them.  You know, strategizing how to attack the remainders of Alpha’s horde, figuring out how to defend Hilltop before it fell, healing from the wound he sustained at Alpha’s hand, sitting on that log all damn night with Negan waiting on Carol to come home, having a lover’s quarrel with his best damn everything, taking care of the Grimes babies and Lydia, being the reluctant leader.  Kang, why you playing them like that?  Daryl’s a super guy but he’s not a superhuman with clones.  So many times my ass.  

Seriously.  Who been watching Connie and Virgil?  The MIA Oceansiders?  Beta’s Fee Fi Fo Fum Ghost?  

Nice.  A Michonne mention.  Maybe the truth will start to trickle out.  

LMAO at Connie’s “I’m not staying here.”  Me neither, girl.  I would be outta that house so fast.  

They really “Quiet Placing” this episode.  Honestly?  I’m kinda loving it.  

WTF was that?  I know she can’t hear but you telling me all the little hairs on her arms, legs, and neck didn’t stand the fuck up and say fuck this shit, I’m gone?  Pardon my language, lovelies, but that moment had my heart kicking up several beats.  

Okay, okay.  To be fair to Connie, every hair on her body been doing that since the front door closed.  Maybe they’re desensitized.  

Gollum’s chasing Connie!!!  He/She wants their Precious!!!

The knee jerk reactions about this episode sight unseen are OTT, honestly.  And I mean no disrespect by saying that.  I can understand completely where they’re coming from because we’ve been burned so long in this fandom.  But it’s obvious the spoiler source has their particular biases and reads into things in such a way that don’t line up with what’s actually being shown onscreen.  Daryl’s loyalty in this episode and all along quite clearly lies with his family and his community.  He’s been playing Leah since the start and is truly just trying to survive somehow.  

Awful thought.  The Reaper that’s so suspish of Daryl--haven’t quite caught his name or really cared to.  I feel like he might try to get to Daryl somehow.  When he realizes that Daryl cares no more for Leah than any human would care for somebody (they thought) they used to know?  He’s going after Dog.  Or Carol should she finally join this story. 

I refuse to believe Carol isn’t going to be a part of this story.  Because they messing with her mans, lol.  

“You’re ever with us or you’re not.”  Now where have I heard those words before?  I wish I could find that Daryl gif because that had to be one of the funniest things ever, lol.  

Unrealistic suggestion to Daryl, Leah?  Breathing oxygen seems to piss off Carver.  Oh look.  He finally has a name for me, lol.  

I love how all three of the ladies--Carol, Magna, and Rosita--look at Kelly with such indulgent, adoring “little sis, you alright?” eyes.  

They are seriously the most beautiful quartet of characters.  I mean all of them are lovely but Carol and Rosita this season?  Ugh.  The unfairness of the pretty.  

Human bones.  Terminus callback, lovelies.  How it all would have eventually gone down if Gareth and Co. hadn’t met the business end of Rick’s red machete.  

So many horror movie homages in this one.  

Virgil’s like “let’s leave this Texas Chainsaw Massacre behind.”  

Connie and Virgil have obviously bonded, ya’ll.  I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying their scenes together when the character mostly got on my nerves with Michonne.  He’s a good actor and the core of his character is sympathetic, but I’m not going to lie.  I wasn’t super enthused when he was the one that rescued Connie because I didn’t know how their scenes would play out. But there’s a nice synergy there.  

Okay.  Does Carver want Leah for himself?  Because I’m sure Daryl at this point would love to scream “take her, I know where I fucking belong!”  

Daryl’s digging in deep because Carver has shown him Leah’s potential weak spot.  Nuance is truly lost on some people, LMAO.  He cares about Leah as a human being probably.  He’s Daryl, after all.  The sweet one.  But he sees her as his way outta this and he’s going to exploit it.  

It’s nice to have a silent Negan for once, lol.  I can pretend he didn’t take my baby Glenn away from me and enjoy JDM’s pretty.  

So.  These cannibal people were the watchers?  Hmm.  

I’m really digging Virgil 2.0.  Yeah.  Nobody’s surprised more than me.  

Sweet, sweet scene between Virgil and Connie.  His determination to reunite her with her family brings back the sympathy I felt for him when he told Michonne “I promised her flowers.  Every day.”  

Damn.  How many of those creepy crawly cannibals are there?  

How brave of Connie to confront her fears to save someone she’s obviously grown to care about.  

The Kelly/Connie reunion gave me chills and made me cry.  Thank fuck Angela didn’t cheapen that moment by having it focus on literally anybody else.  Kelly is the most important person in the whole world to Connie and vice versa.  Just like Carol is the most important person in the whole world to Daryl and vice versa.  Angela fucking knows.  Everybody does.  Except the people busy building castles out of sand while the waves of Carol’s and Daryl’s converging stories keep crashing closer and closer to shore.  

Such a beautiful moment given to us by Angel Theory and Lauren Ridloff.  So authentic and sweet.  Kelly and Connie are home to each other.  

Poor Frost.  That’s all I gotta say about that.  

WTF, though.  Was Mel just not available or what?  I want to see more of the ASZ characters that I care about, not the Reapers.  Like I’d be fine with the story if all the characters not named Maggie, Negan, or Daryl weren’t surviving on crumbs during it.  Especially the 2nd billed actress on the entire show.  Angela.  Please.  Fix this.  

One last WTF.  Seriously.  WTF has Maggie done to inspire Pope’s obsession?  It better be juicy after all this shit.  

Overall impression of the episode--

One of my favorites of the season so far.  The horror aspects were fantastic, IMHO. I truly didn’t expect to like Connie and Virgil’s scenes as much together so that was a nice surprise.  She got the reunion that felt most true and earned for the character and her story and I thank Angela from the bottom of my heart for that.  

I would have loved more Carol but I always want more Carol.  I’m okay with her taking a backseat because ultimately?  This was Kelly’s moment with her sister.  Carol and Connie will eventually have their time to sit down and talk.  And pick back up their blossoming friendship because I truly do not feel Connie blames Carol at all.  

I do wish Lydia had been included with the girl group.  Last episode felt like it was leading up to that.  

The Reaper storyline continues to be the weakest link because every time we see them the dialogue and interactions feel totally recycled from the time previous.  I feel like it would have totally been helped by a tighter focus and less stretching out because 8 episodes of this is really diluting what I feel like Angela and Co. are going for.  I’m not here for Leah being redeemed or being a bigger focus in any of the episodes because she does nothing of interest for me.  I’m just peeking in on that story for the Daryl of it all.  

Speaking of the Daryl? You lovelies out there gotta stop taking that spoiler source’s recaps at face value because it’s obvious to me at least that there’ some bias at work.  Every action and word coming from Daryl is coming from a place of loyalty to his family and wanting to protect them, no matter how he has to dirty his hands.  Leah is just a means to his ultimate end.  She’s not his future.  She never was.  His future’s already spoken for and 2023 can’t get  here soon enough.  But like Daryl, we have to just survive somehow.  

Oh goodie.  More Maggie and Negan next episode and looks like no real follow up on Connie and the ASZ reunions.  Hopefully, this is yet another instance of the previews being deceiving but I’m not holding my breath.  

Until later, lovelies.  

Hope my word vomit didn’t bore you too much.  

#The Walking Dead #Season 11 #TWD spoilers #things that make me smile and cry #for reasons #ignore all the typos #with something this longwinded? #LOL #there's bound to be plenty

[lycorogue]

I Was Thinking Of You (full story)

You can also find it on AO3, or on FFN, or even on DA if you prefer.

So, I know that everyone is talking about “Miraculer” (it was a STUPID GOOD episode), but I also found out that “Silencer” finally got an English dub (along with “Bakerix” and “Onichan”). I figured I’d ride the potential Lukanette wave that could resurge with this dub release, so please forgive my shameless plugging. >3< This story was a birthday gift for the awesome @thetauruspixie <3

I Was Thinking Of You

Summary: Girls' Day derails when Marinette realizes the male lead of a romance movie reminds her of someone other than Adrien. (No tie-ins with “Silencer”)

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 3565

Status: Completed One-shot UPDATE: This story now has a sequel stand-alone story: Acting Weird

"Marinette!" Rose ambushed her classmate as Marinette walked the gangplank onto The Liberty. As Rose pulled Marinette into a tight hug, Juleka strolled up beside them.

"Yeah," Juleka mumbled, "Thanks for coming over." She didn't hold eye contact with Marinette, but she did brush her bangs off her face briefly.

"No problem. Thanks for inviting me over." Marinette smiled despite getting crushed by her petite friend.

"Rose!" Juleka softly scolded. Like a dog heeling, Rose released Marinette and scurried beside Juleka instead, her arm wrapping around Juleka's.

"It's fine, really." Marinette giggled. "Is everyone else coming over as well?"

"Mylène is already below deck, Alya should be here shortly, and Alix won't be able to make it. Her dad grounded her for rollerblading through the Louvre." Rose chirped as she pulled Juleka along to the stairs, Marinette following beside them.

"That sounds like Alix." Marinette shook her head, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face as they descended into the hull of the ship.

"Oh, hey, Marinette." Luka scooped up his plated sandwich and walked around the breakfast bar that separated the ship's galley from the main living area. His voice was as soft and soothing as usual, and he flashed her a gentle smile.

"Hey, Luka. Are you going to join us?"

"Yeah, we don't mind," Mylène chimed in from the sectional. She then pivoted a bit more to greet the girls coming down the stairs. "Hey, Marinette. Nice to see you."

"Same!" Marinette waved to her friend, but quickly changed focus back to Luka.

"Nah, that's alright. Thank you, though. It's such a nice day, I'm going to enjoy some sunshine on the deck. But you ladies are all welcome to join me if you'd like." He rested a hand on Marinette's shoulder as he passed her. "Especially you." His fingers slid back off her as he turned and climbed up to the deck.

"Subtle." Juleka mumbled as she shook her head, and walked around the sectional to sit beside Mylène.

"Huh?" Marinette struggled to get her bearings.

"He is so sweet!" Rose squeaked. "Marinette, I think-"

"Rose." Juleka shook her head. "Not the time."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Rose scurried around to sit beside Juleka. "Come on, Marinette, we were thinking of watching a movie today." She opened up Juleka's laptop and set it on the circular coffee table.

"What movie?" Marinette nestled herself on the other side of Mylène.

"Well, I was thinking we could watch the Ladybug movie." Alya stood about half way down the stairs, the DVD in her hand, and held up for the group to see. "Hey, girls, Luka told me you were all down here."

She was greeted with a quick choir of "hey" back from the group.

"Ladybug & Chat Noir again, Alya?" Marinette groaned. She could only watch an animated movie about herself so many times. Especially since it was barely based on fact.

"I thought you'd relish the chance to listen to Adrien's voice for nearly two hours." Alya hurdled the back of the sectional in order to plop beside Marinette.

"Yeah, but he's playing Chat Noir! I just can't take it seriously. He seems so overly goofy in it." Marinette held up a hand and turned away from her bestie. "As much as I enjoyed watching the movie, I need a bit of a pallet cleanser. We've been watching it practically non-stop since it came out on DVD."

"Alright, then what should we watch?" Mylène looked around the group, waiting for any sort of suggestion.

"Oh, I know!" Rose leapt off the sectional and sprinted to Juleka's room. Barely a minute later she was back out and snuggled next to Juleka on the sectional. "I love this movie! You're not sick of it yet, are you, Juleka?" She held the DVD out to Alya as she looked up at Juleka with puppy eyes.

"Nah," Juleka gave her a soft, half-smile back as she brushed her hair out of her face. "It makes you happy, so it's cool."

"Goodie! Girls, I think you'll really love it!" Rose hugged Juleka tight as she waited for confirmation from the group.

"Want of Two? Rose, what the heck is this?" Alya flipped the DVD over to read the back cover. "'Gareth has always been a loner, and he was convinced that it was by choice. Then he met Julia, an independent motocross racer in town for a tournament. Suddenly, Gareth realizes he's not as happy to be a lone wolf as he once thought, and he tries desperately to make Julia part of his life. Problem is, she's been burnt before, and has become a bit of a loner-by-design herself, only relying on her skeleton pit crew for both racing and emotional support. Is it even possible for Gareth to convince Julia to take down her protective wall? Or will he be forced to learn to live without her again once the tournament is through, and she moves on to the next town?'" Alya blinked a few times as she tried to register what she just read. "This sounds so terribly cheesy. We're definitely watching it!" She laughed and popped the case open.

"I'll grab the popcorn!" Mylène ran to the galley to start up a bag in the microwave.

As Alya put the DVD into Juleka's laptop, Marinette glanced at the stairs behind her. Always been a loner. That description of both main characters made her instantly think of Luka. She never saw him hanging out with anyone besides his sister and her friends, and she couldn't recall any friends mentioned aside from her classmates. For such a sweet and caring boy, Luka did seem to be quite the loner.

"This is going to be great, right, Em?" Alya elbowed Marinette, which brought her attention back to the laptop. "Something up?"

"No. Just was wondering if we should ask Luka again to join us."

"I don't know if he'd be into watching a movie," Rose offered. "He's really into music, and likes socializing with us, but I don't think I've ever seen him just sit and watch something."

"He prefers being more interactive," Juleka added. "Reading books and watching films or TV is too passive."

"Oh." Marinette gave the stairs one last glance as the movie started.

Everyone was instantly sucked into the cliché romance movie. Gareth was suave, charming, a bit damaged, and his actor was handsome. Julia was strong, humorous, wounded, and her actress was almost blindingly beautiful. The chemistry between the leads was palpable, and from the moment they were on screen together it was obvious that they both wanted the other, even if Julia denied Gareth.

The girls alternated between passing around the popcorn bowl and the box of tissues as the drama continued to unfold between the leads. Scenes were also frequently accompanied with hushed mutterings of how the leads had characteristics that very much matched Ivan, Nino, or Juleka, depending on the situation.

Gareth's attempts to get Julia to fall for him was also very much like Chat Noir, Marinette quietly contemplated as the movie slid into its third act. In an instant she went from rooting for Julia to accept Gareth to hoping Gareth learns his love for her is enough; he didn't actually need them to be together.

In the end, Julia did open up to Gareth, who became part of her pit crew and toured with her on the motocross circuit. They rode off in the trailer together, the wind blowing through the windows, whipping Julia's short hair around her face as she gave Gareth a loving gaze. Her crew were all in the back, smiling at Julia's happiness. The trailer disappeared down the highway, and the credits started to roll.

"Wasn't that beautiful?" Rose squeaked as she blew her nose. Juleka instantly wrapped an arm around her, and rubbed her shoulder.

"Gareth is so much like my Ivan." Mylène pulled her knees up and hugged them; a huge grin on her face. "He seems like a loner, but he's really this gentle soul who wants to be loved. I'm so glad someone saw that."

"I get that, but I thought Gareth was more like Nino." Alya walked the empty popcorn bowl to the breakfast bar. "He was actually pretty goofy when he thought he could be himself. He was also willing to do whatever it took to defend Julia; a protector first and foremost. That's my man to a T."

"Goofy romantic also describes Rose," Juleka added with a little smirk, making Rose blush slightly.

"What about Adrien though?" Alya grew her own smirk as she leaned on the sectional back behind Marinette.

"Wh-what?" Marinette nearly fell off the sectional as Alya leaned in closer.

"I'm sure you saw bits of Adrien in Gareth as well, girl. So, what parts reminded you of him?"

"Was it his chiseled body and green eyes?" Mylène held up the DVD cover, which had Gareth and Julia on the front.

"Maybe it was how kind he was to everyone as he tried to make friends of his own?" Rose wiped more tears off her cheeks as she leaned into Marinette.

"Or how he never knew who his father was?" Juleka offered.

"Oh! Uh-" Marinette blushed as she realized it was actually Luka whom she was thinking of the whole movie. She never really knew much about Luka and Juleka's dad, or if they even had the same one. They never really talked about him. Luka was also a bit of a loner, even though he was one of the sweetest people Marinette had ever met. He seemed willing to do whatever it took to make his sister and her friends happy; anything to make sure Marinette was happy.

"I dunno. It's different for me and Adrien. We're not a couple."

Alya leaned further over the back of the sectional, making herself eye level with Marinette. "Yeah, but-"

"But nothing. He sees me as just a friend, so what's the point?" Marinette slid off the sectional. "Excuse me. I think I just need some air." She walked around the sectional and Alya, never taking her eyes off the floor.

"Marinette?" Rose stood, but Juleka grabbed her wrist and shook her head.

"Luka," Mylène mouthed to Alya, who nodded back and watched Marinette climb the stairs.

Marinette was greeted instantly by the sorrowful strumming of a lone guitar as she reached the deck. Luka sat at the bow, his eyes closed as he played. Nearly a quarter of his sandwich still sat on his plate beside him.

"Hey, Luka. I hope I'm not interrupting."

He didn't stop playing. He simply opened his eyes and slowly raised his head to acknowledge her.

"Not at all. Why aren't you hanging with your friends?"

"Well, they're your friends too, aren't they?" Marinette walked to the bow and leaned against it as Luka continued to play.

"I suppose they are, but you ladies need some time to yourselves too, don't you? I'm sure it could be weird to have Juleka's older brother hanging with you all the time."

"I wouldn't mind." Marinette truly wouldn't mind Luka spending as much time as possible with her, but at the same time, she knew he was right. Especially when she had Adrien Problems, it would certainly be weird to have Luka in the room too.

"You're very sweet, Marinette."

"This is a sadder song than you normally play." She moved his sandwich off the wooden crate beside him so she could sit down.

"I guess it was a bit of a sadder day, but it does seem a bit brighter now that you're with me." He shifted his fingers to a higher octave, and plucked the strings instead of strumming them. He even added some extra percussion beats by periodically tapping the guitar with his hand. It still had a soft melancholy undertone to it, but the new melody made Marinette smile.

"You shouldn't feel afraid to ask if you could hang out with us if you're feeling lonely or down."

"I appreciate the offer. You're always so kind, caring for others like that."

"Well, what about you? I feel like you're the one cheering me up every time I see you."

"About the same subject too, it seems."

He was right. She first met Luka while she was upset about Adrien not being able to come to the Music Festival. He had played a song to perk her up, and was kind to her until she smiled. Then she was upset about being a third wheel on Adrien's date with another woman. Yet again, Luka played her a song to lift her spirits and to vocalize, so to speak, the sorrow she had in her heart. At the ice rink, he did all he could to distract her from Adrien's date, in order to again make her smile. It nearly worked, too. Even at the end of their pseudo-date, Luka directed Marinette to talk to Adrien about her feelings. She had chickened out in the end, but it was sweet to know that Luka was cheering her on.

"Yeah, but I don't need help with that today. So today it's your turn." She gently bumped his shoulder with her own, careful to not hit his arm and disrupt his playing.

"You know what? I think just having you here is enough." He smiled at her, and switched up his fingering again. The melancholy left his song. His eyes closed and his head swayed a little as his fingers danced against the strings.

"Luka? If you don't mind me asking, do you have any friends outside of my classmates?"

He stopped playing.

"I like you guys. I don't really need any friends besides your class. You're all some really cool kids. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I guess we are, but don't you have any friends from your own class? School seems like it would be boring without friends with you."

"It is, but things are different for my grade. We weren't taught to be as accepting and loving as you guys were. I just don't fit in with them, but that's fine, because I truly enjoy having all of you as my friends."

"That's so sad. I'm sorry you don't really connect with your classmates."

"Don't worry about it. It gives me time to think about my songs. Ones like this."

The notes were slow at first, but quickly picked up until they were practically skipping off the strings. Marinette couldn't help but smile as she tapped her foot along, and her head swayed in time with his. There was so much life and optimism in the song. So much cheerful energy. She could picture a lively strut through the bustling streets of Paris as Luka played each note. All too soon, the song ended.

"That was amazing! What was your inspiration?"

"You were, actually."

"Oh!" Marinette blushed as she looked at her knees, her hands gripped hard on each side of the crate she was sitting on.

"You're a very special person, Marinette. You're so upbeat, and cheerful, and determined whenever you're helping your friends. This is the song that should be playing whenever you're around, and the song that plays in your heart every moment of your life. If I could, I'd chase all sadness from your heart so the proper song could play within it instead."

"Luka, I-" He was so sweet. He was always so kind to her, and he was gentle. He was romantic, and subtly suave. He never once pressured her, and always wanted what was best for her. Could he truly be attracted to her as well? Was it possible that he didn't just think of her as a friend like Adrien did?

"I'm sorry. I know you like Adrien." Luka shifted away from Marinette. "I just wanted you to know the kind of life a girl like you deserved."

"Luka, we're friends, right?" She still couldn't bear to look at him. She was probably wrong. Luka was older than them. Marinette was his younger sister's friend and classmate, and Luka probably just thought of her as a surrogate sister.

"I will always be your friend, Marinette."

"I thought so." Another friend. She enjoyed having him in her life, and was glad that they were friends, but it figured that was all Luka wanted from her as well.

"Did you not want us to be friends?"

"No! No I do!" Marinette flailed her arms about a bit, nearly smacking Luka in the face. "I just- With that song, I thought- Nevermind."

Luka's grip tightened around his guitar. His eyes wide and gorgeously teal.

"Marinette? Did you want us to be more than friends?"

She wasn't sure. An hour ago, even ten minutes ago, she would have told him no. She was in love with Adrien, not Luka. However, Luka was right there. He was kind, and made her smile. She didn't stammer (as much) around him, and she loved spending time with him. It was clear that Adrien wasn't going to see her as more than "just a friend," but maybe Luka did. She deserved happiness, right? That's what Luka told her. So, maybe she could let her heart have him instead of Adrien.

"I- I don't really know. But, I think-"

Luka put down his guitar and leaned in close, so tantalizingly close. His eyes never once drifted from hers. It felt like he was searching her very soul, wishing for a specific answer, and she hoped she had the right one for him.

"Do you know how I feel, Marinette? About you?"

"I think so."

"If you aren't positive, I'd love to spend as much time as you need convincing you, but only if that's what you want."

"I do. I think I really do." Marinette leaned closer as well.

"I want you do to this for you, not for anyone else."

"I am."

Luka raised his hand to Marinette's jawline, and let it hover close enough to her cheek she could still feel his body heat.

"You sure?"

She nodded, and rested her hand on his, pressing it against her cheek. Her heart raced as she felt his fingers against her skin.

"Then, may I?" Luka whispered as his lips crept closer to hers.

Marinette nodded again.

He pulled gently on her jaw, angling her face better as his lips lightly brushed against hers. It was a sweet, chaste kiss, but electricity still shot through Marinette. Her arms moved on their own. One wrapped around Luka's waist, as the other reached up for his hair, holding him against her.

Luka actually liked her back. He wasn't Adrien, and that felt surprisingly amazing. There were no games. There were no nerves. She could reach out for him whenever she wanted, and he could do the same. His lips felt so soft, and his hair silky, but it was more than that. Her heart was playing the song Luka had written about her.

Far too soon, Luka pulled away, instead resting his forehead against hers.

"I can't believe I could ever be this lucky," he whispered.

"I'm the lucky one." Marinette discretely shifted her hand to her purse, wondering if Tikki's luck brought Luka to her.

Their quiet moment instantly imploded as four voices hooted at the top of their lungs, cheering and clapping for the couple. Marinette jumped as she turned to see Juleka, Rose, Alya, and Mylène at the top of the stairs, celebrating.

"How romantic!" Rose chirped and nuzzled her folded hands, one foot popped behind her.

"Well, so much for Adrien, I guess." Alya teased before giving Marinette a thumbs up.

"It's about time you two got together. Ivan and I were wondering what was going on between you two, and you know it had to be obvious if Ivan noticed it."

"I'm so happy for you," Juleka intoned.

Marinette blushed, but Luka took her hand, and she instantly felt fine. She was happy the girls found out. She wanted the world to find out. She was happy, and Luka gave that to her.

"Thanks, everyone. Sorry if I interrupted Girls' Day." Luka gave them all a soft smile, and Marinette instantly noticed it wasn't the same one he always gave her.

"This is way better than 'Girls' Day'." Rose ran over and pushed Luka and Marinette closer together. "Oh! We all need to set up Group Date Night!"

"Yeah, Nino has got to hear about this." Alya was already dialing as she walked to the stern of the ship.

"I need to let Ivan know too." Mylène briefly bounced on her toes before jogging back below deck to make her own phone call.

"Come on, Rose, let's give them space." Juleka took Rose's hand and pulled her below deck as well.

"Well, that got out quick," Luka chuckled, a bit embarrassed.

"I'm glad." Marinette tucked herself against Luka's side.

He again tapped his forehead against hers, his eyes closed as he took her in through that simple touch.

"Me too." He pulled back enough for their eyes to meet. "Do you mind if I indulge myself a little?"

Marinette brushed Luka's cheek, directing him back to her. "Only if it means I can too."

Their lips met once more, and Marinette hoped she'd never get used to the electricity that shot through her.

#ML #Miraculous Ladybug #fanfiction #LycoRogue writing #full story #Lukanette #Luka Couffaine #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #No Silencer Spoilers #gift for thetauruspixie #shameless plug #riding the lukanette wave #LycoRogue original #LycoRogue Fanfic

[swanqueeneverafter]

What Dreams May Come, Pt.39

Underworld. Underground Cavern. Continued. Hook: “Mal, I know you love me, and I love you, but True Love is the rarest magic of all. Are you certain?” Maleficent: “I mean, honestly, I'm not sure, but who could be? We have to try. (Smiles:) Why is it we can only admit how we feel when one of us is facing certain death?” Hook: “I don't know. (Half chuckles and half sighs:) Neither of our lives have been easy. Our daughter has flourished into a beautiful, confident young woman and neither of us were there for her when she needed us most. I guess the least we can do is be there for each other now.” Maleficent: “Here goes. (Hook takes a step back as Maleficent slowly places the heart on the scales before also taking a step back. They stand looking at the scale and nothing happens:) Well, that was anticlimactic.” Hook: “It didn't bloody work.” Maleficent: (Considers:) “Well, they are scales, perhaps it needs both of our hearts for it to work?” (Before Hook can stop her, Maleficent reaches inside her own chest, removing her heart and placing it on the scales. Immediately, Maleficent lets out a sharp and pained gasp.) Hook: (Tries to catch her as she falls to the ground in pain:) “Mal, what's wrong?” Maleficent: (Struggling to speak from the pain:) “The pedestal. Get my heart off.” Hook: (Attempts to take her heart off, but is suddenly engulfed by flames:) “Aah!” Maleficent: “Killian. Killian!” Hook: “Get your heart! Aah!” (Maleficent looks between Hook and her heart for a few moments, before suddenly running and tackling Hook, removing him from the fire. They fall to the ground, with Maleficent half on top of Hook, breathing heavily. The door to the portal opens and they look up in surprise.) Maleficent: “What the hell is that?” Hook: “It's True Love. (They both look at one another and he smiles:) Mal, you chose me. That was the test.” (Maleficent smiles at him as well, before they move to sit up.) Maleficent: (Looking towards the door:) "So that's our way home?" Hook: "Morpheus said it will take us wherever we want to go, but I can't leave, not yet." Maleficent: "Why not?" Hook: "Because I need to ask you one question. (When she turns to face him, Maleficent sees Hook is now down on one knee, holding the ring in his hand:) Mal, will you marry me?"

Dream World. Battleground. (Gareth paces angrily while Madelena and Morpheus are seated in the royal box.) Gareth: “Okay, are we gonna start this war or not?” Morpheus: “I say we wait. In an hour, the sun will be at the perfect angle to highlight the color of the spilling blood against the golden sand. It'll be spectacular for the royal painter.” Queen Madelena: “Brilliant. Then we wait.” Gareth: “Okay. What's going on here?” Queen Madelena: “Hmm?” Gareth: “This war was my birthday present. It was supposed to be me and you down there killing people, not sitting in some luxury box eating humongous raisins.” Morpheus: (Scoffs:) “Actually, they’re called figs.” Gareth: “I feel something's changed.” Queen Madelena: “Nothing's changed, Gareth.” Gareth: “Well, then, let's go down there, hack up a few folk, and go on our vacation just like we talked about.” Queen Madelena: “Yeah, um, about that. (Stands, walks over to him:) Look, Gareth, um... Let's put off the vacation. Just for a bit. I mean, we would have just conquered a new kingdom, and it would be impolite to leave Lord Morpheus all by himself after he was kind enough to bring us this conflict.” Gareth: “Has this got something to do with that dew-dew dark magic stuff?” Morpheus: “Actually, it's D'Dew. Two darks... Dark-dark evil way.” Gareth: “Back off!” Queen Madelena: “Of course not, Gareth. I swear.” Morpheus: “Hold the crow. (Stands, uses a telescope to look down at the battlefield:) No, it can’t be.” Queen Madelena: (Taking the telescope, looks for herself:) “What? All I see are two female warriors. One tall, dark and brooding with a frizbee on her hip-” Gareth: “Xena.” Queen Madelena: “And a shorter blonde woman with garden forks in her boots.” Gareth: “And Gabrielle! Right, that's it. I'm gonna go down there and cause havoc just like we planned. There’s no chance I’m missing the opportunity to go up against those two. (To Madelena:) I hope you're gonna join me? (Madelena looks down, while Morpheus smiles over her shoulder. Putting on his helmet:) Right. (Walking down to the battlefield, to his soldiers:) Okay, you dogs! To battle!” (The army cheers and Gareth begins marching them forward.)

On The Other Side Of The Battlefield. (Watching the Valencians approach, Robin Hood stands ready to fight as Rumplestiltskin pulls up alongside him on his horse.) Rumplestiltskin: "Are you ready, Robin of Loxley?" Robin Hood: (Nods:) "I just never thought I'd find myself on another battlefield again." Rumplestiltskin: "You and me both, dearie." (Rumple pulls down his visor and urges his horse forward.) Gareth & His Army: ♪ It's a good day to die ♪ ♪ To stand and fight until we're dead ♪ ♪ A good day to die ♪ ♪ Though if somebody ever said, ‘for what?’ ♪ ♪ We forgot ♪ ♪ So on reflection, perhaps maybe not ♪ Jasmine: (Drawing her sword:) “Let's do this. Move out!” (Army cheers:) ♪ It's a good day to die ♪ Dwarves: ♪ Though not as good as other days ♪ Jasmine & Army: ♪ A good day to die ♪ ♪ But if there's one a little ways away ♪ ♪ Well, then, hey ♪ ♪ We can reschedule ♪ ♪ It's more than okay ♪ Xena: “Now!” (The armies converge and finally begin fighting:) All: ♪ It's a good day to die ♪ ♪ To spurt our blood and spill our guts ♪ ♪ A good day to die ♪ ♪ Good day to die ♪ ♪ Out loud, it sounds completely nuts ♪ ♪ But still ♪ ♪ Blood will spill ♪ Madelena & Morpheus: ♪ After that, it will all go downhill ♪ Gareth: (While slicing and hacking:) “She doesn't want to go on vacation! We were supposed to go zip-lining. (Grabs Happy:) Who doesn't like zip-lining?!” Happy: “Huh?” (Gareth tosses him aside.) All: ♪ We will try not to die, but we will ♪ Jasmine: “To victory!” All: ♪ In the meantime, I guess we can kill ♪ ♪ And we'll fight, who knows why ♪ ♪ Till we say with a sigh ♪ ♪ It's a go-o-o-o-o-od ♪ ♪ Day to ♪ ♪ Di-i-i-i-i-i-e ♪ Richard: (Weapons clanking:) “Time out! Can we call a time out?!” Circle Of Stones. (Gothel and her coven of witches stand in a circle upon a mountain top.) Gothel: (Lowering her hood:) "Thank you, my sisters, for everything."

Regina: "Don't thank them just yet. (Walking into view alongside Emma and Zelena:) They won't be able to save you from me." Gothel: "Regina. Zelena. Sisters together again. Although I do love any opportunity to see you, Zelena, I’m afraid you’re not going to be enough.” Regina: “Oh, she's not the only one we brought.” (Stepping out from the shadows with their swords drawn, David, Snow White and Ella each take a hooded witch hostage.) Gothel: “Ooh. You’ve brought Henry’s grandparents and his girlfriend. How will I ever defeat you?” (Using her powers, Regina blasts Gothel to the ground.) Regina: “You want a witch fight? Happy to oblige.” Emma: “Now where’s Henry?” Gothel: (Chuckles, dusting herself off:) “May I?” (Gothel walks over to a hooded figure. Pulling back the hood, she reveals Henry, bound and gagged, his eyes bloodshot.) Regina: “Henry!” (Emma, Ella & Regina rush over to Henry who collapses to the ground.)

(Gothel watches with a smile on her face as Regina and Ella quickly remove the ropes binding him. Henry coughs severely.) Emma: (Stands, to Gothel:) “What did you do to him?” Gothel: “What witches do best. We poisoned him.” Regina: “Zelena!” (Zelena moves to kneel beside her sister. Together they attempt to use their magic to cure Henry, to no avail.) Ella: (Tears falling, clutching Henry’s hand in her own:) “It's not working!” Gothel: “And it's not going to. As a matter of fact, the only thing that can is if you accept my proposal.” Regina: “And what’s that?” Gothel: “I’ve grown weary of my place among the dead. I wish to be reborn, and I could think of no better mother than you, Regina.” Zelena: (Stepping forward:) “There aren't many guarantees in life, Gothel, but I promise you this. If you harm their child, I will hound you. I will hound you in between worlds. I will be your eternal damnation." Gothel: "Well, at least we'll be together again. I've so missed these intimate little moments." Regina: “I'd kill myself before I let your soul replace my child's." Gothel: "Tempting, but no. The choice is yours: The soul of your unborn child, (Glances down at Henry:) Or his life?"

The Battlefield. (The war rages on. Glimpses of Mulan fighting two soldiers, Robin rapidly firing her bow and Jasmine now wielding two swords can be seen in one area of the battlefield. In another, Xena and Gareth stand toe to toe, slashing and striking at each other with their swords. Momentarily distracted by the sight of Gabrielle being surrounded by soldiers, Xena takes a slash across her bicep courtesy of Gareth's blade.) Gareth: (Chuckles:) "What's the matter, Xena? Battle fatigue?" (Snarling, Xena rallies with several hard thrusts of her sword which sends Gareth reeling. Running up his body and using him as a springboard, Xena back flips across the battlefield. Landing beside Gabrielle, the pair stand back to back before taking on the barrage of soldiers.) The Royal Box. (From their perch, high above the battle, Madelena and Morpheus sit watching.) Morpheus: "Isn't this amazing? We sit here while they do our dirty work for us. Isn't it crazy what you can talk people into doing?” Queen Madelena: “Well, I thank God for the class system every day.” Morpheus: “Mm-hmm. Me too. Oh, no. (Stands:) This isn't good. (Uses his telescope:) Ohh. (Spots a soldier holding a familiar weapon:) The sword of the One True King. And he's down there. And he's a god.” Battlefield. Richard: (Lifting his visor:) “This is madness! Aah! Aah!” Royal Box. Morpheus: “Mm. Jasmine wasn't lying. He's on their side. It's time... for D'Dew.” Queen Madelena: “Actually, I've been having second thoughts about the dark, evil way.” Morpheus: “Two darks... dark-dark. Why is it so hard for people to remember?” Queen Madelena: “It's just I care about Gareth, and I promised I wouldn't use it. And he seemed super upset about the vacation. Maybe I'll... (Stands:) I'll go down and help him fight.” Morpheus: (Blocks her path:) “Look. May I be blunt? You want power. I offer it. You want control. It's yours for the taking. You want the whole enchilada. It's magic hour, baby. May I be even blunter? Screw Gareth. He's weak. Losers vacation. Closers use magic. So, shall we finish this thing?”

#sq #swanqueen #swan queen

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Making A Galaxy Far Far Away: An Aesthetic Photoset Tutorial

Requested by @geleixi (and varying amounts of time ago by @rockett-to-the-purple-moon, @thenameisgreed, @pizzaplanethq, and probably others who sent nice messages that I went “Oh, what a nice message this means so much I LOVE IT SO MUCH I’M TOO ANXIOUS TO ANSWER IT WRONG I’ll just do it later” and then promptly NEVER answered it.)

Brainstorming & Photo Collection

Picking a Color Palette

Choosing Images from Collection

Coloring

Textures & Effects

First off: I am not even going to remotely pretend like graphic design is a Thing I Am Better At Than Anyone Else, because that would be patently false and ridiculous, but I also get a fair number of Asks about making photosets/aesthetic posts, so here we are. I’m planning to do a separate one, maybe, for how I do the Cartoon Girls All Grown Up and Nancy Drew Dream Games series, because the “brainstorming and photo collection” part is so different that it inherently affects the rest of the process.

BUT I also feel like I don’t see a ton of tutorials that go through the brainstorming/finding images part of making aesthetics, and I tend to think of my Graphics Style(TM) as “DEEPLY Uninterested in washed-out faux sepiatone grimdark Tumblr Coloring?? + Not Good Enough At Masks To Do Negative Space Well,” which might be some people’s level of ~graphics design passion(TM)~ too, so. That’s the ride for which this ticket has been bought.

Brainstorming & Photo Collection

Obviously, the specifics of this are totally different for every aesthetic, but all of the GFFA/swworlds start from the same seed: Star Wars Aesthetic.

Star Wars itself has a very particular Lookque, imo: it’s not quite retrofuture, it’s not quite dirtpunk, it’s not quite scifi, even. There are the insanely sumptuous (and hella culturally appropriative) queens of Naboo and the ramshackle toppled AT-AT where Rey lives on Jakku and the not-even-subtle-at-all-jfc Nazi inspiration of the Empire and First Order and the straight-up millennial Tumblr witch Goffik look of the Dathomir Witches and Zabrak siths and the blue, blue water of Scarif. There “isn’t” a unifying aesthetic through Star Wars, and yet, as Gareth Edwards said, there’s a LOOK and FEEL to Star Wars: if you go a little too far to the left or right, it isn’t Star Wars anymore.*

*That said, this tutorial talks about Crait, which was invented by Rilo Jon, who went both too far left and too far right but mostly... too far-right. BA DUM BUM! Anyway.

So part of what makes Star Wars Look Like Star Wars, to me, is that it ISN’T ever Too Scifi. There’s a realism in all of Star Wars’ disparate planets -- their looks, anyway; like, talking about how Crait, in this case, makes NO ecological sense as a planet AT ALL is another post entirely. (IT MAKES NO SENSE.) It’s different from, like, Doctor Who, which I think revels in its “we can make these aliens and planets look like WHATEVER” more? Star Wars tends to be very like... “we want to use practical sets and effects.” Even for planets that only appear thus far in Clone Wars and Rebels? So it’s definitely part of the intention of SW’s Aesthetic.

ALL OF THAT TO SAY, my first step with each planet is to figure out the best way to represent it using as much real-world photography as I can and how best to channel the ~spirit of Star Wars~ in the graphic. Sometimes I fail miserably. CURSE YOU, NAR SHADAA. But most of the time it helps provide a Framework for the rest of the brainstorming and photo collection.

SO. FOR CRAIT. (For another example/totally different look and process, I wrote up a little about Haruun Kal on its post here.)

Crait has the definite benefit of appearing in one of the movies, so the first part of photo collection was to screencap TLJ. I took the caps using the 1080p digital release at a 20-frame frequency, so even once I deleted the aps that weren’t of Crait (moving the Canto Bight frames into a folder for Cantonica, of course!), I had like... 1500 images just from TLJ to start the brainstorming and collection with.

First, I trimmed down those ~1500 screencaps to 168 caps that were distinct enough from one another to give me a sense of “what happens” in the scene and, more than that, “What Crait Looks Like.” Then, because there’s additional canon material of Crait besides TLJ, I saved the unlettered images of “Star Wars: The Storms of Crait” from comic penciller Mike Mayhew’s blog @mikemayhew -- if those hadn’t been available, which they’re usually not for planets that appear in the comics (THANX MIKE MAYHEW!!!), I would have taken and cropped panels from the comic at both 100% and screen-fit/60% sizing that had utility for a graphic about planet scenery and not character.

THEN, I looked at Wookieepedia and MSW. Crait was based on the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia, so I Google image-searched that. There weren’t actually very many images of the Salar de Uyuni salt flats that I super loved, so I ended up saving images of other salt flats as well, particularly the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

THEN there was the issue of the red minerals, which were entirely fictional and not part of any real-world salt flat. BUT, there IS real red sand... so I saved some images of red-sand dunes (mostly Mui Ne in Vietnam). I also went through my Star Wars Stock Folder to find images of crystal caves and mines that I’d either saved for other planets in the past, but didn’t end up using, OR just saved because there are so fucking many crystal-based planets in SW.

Each of my big graphics series has its own Stock Folder for unorganized images that just strike the right Vibe~ and might be useful someday, in addition to every planet (or cartoon girl, or US state for the Nancy Drews, etc) having its own folder for specific/organized image collection.

My Star Wars Stock Folder:

So there were already a lot of crystals, star destroyers, blasters, and bunkers that were actually in snow but whatever it was white and crystalline, to work with. I added some workable Crait-like images from the stock folder to Crait’s collection, too.

AND THEN, finally, I LOVE the vulptices, so I searched for (and found!) some of the concept art and 3D modeling images from ILM, and I put those in the folder, as well.

I also saved this, hoping I’d be able to make it work because it’s SO CUTE, but I couldn’t, but here LOOK HOW CUTE:

And then, lest I stay in the image-collection rabbithole forever, I said, “OK, that’s enough.” I ended up starting to actually MAKE the Crait graphic from a collection of 272 images:

Picking a Color Palette

Obviously, the dominant colors of Crait are red and white, so the aesthetic had to be based in red and white. My first instinct was to make a duotone aesthetic using only red, white, and black/grayscale. Something like this:

Which... I don’t hate, or even dislike. It’s definitely more in line with popular Tumblr aesthetic, uh, aesthetics. But I usually don’t like landing on that kind of coloring because it ALWAYS, ALWAYS whitewashes people of color (and jeez, it even whitewashes white people -- look at the model in the fourth frame down on the left, or Luke in the bottom-left.) The “vibrance -100 + Selective Color Red>Red + 100″ always ends up doing the above example to, in this case, Poe: turning him into a licorice man.

So then trying to correct THAT either whitewashes the FUCK out of him/people in general:

(Toning down the red)

Or introducing other colors back into the graphic as a whole:

(Upped yellow and cyan.)

So I nixed that coloring before I even started. (These examples were made after the fact purely to serve as examples.)

I went back to the drawing board, AKA the Crait image folder.

But looking at the collected images -- especially the screencaps and the panels from the Storms of Crait comic -- I was struck by how much Crait also incorporates yellow and blue. (Note that I really, really wanted to try to include Trusk Berinato and Bail Organa... but we’ll talk through why that didn’t work out.) I LOVE @droo216‘s bright, almost jewel-tone edits which I 100% know I don’t have either the patience or skill to make, but I liked the idea of trying to make Crait’s aesthetics in a primary colors + black/white scheme.

Which I actually really like! (Again, made post-facto as an example.) But again, red vibrance DiD tHe tHiNG!!! to Poe and ESPECIALLY to Finn and Bail.

So a high-vibrance look emphasizing bright colors was a no-go. Besides, going back to the source material: high-vibrance and high-energy are the opposite of what the planet of Crait is about. It’s a dying husk of a planet, being killed slowly by its own ecology as the salt in its crust dries out everything beneath it, sucking up water until everything either evolves into living crystal-dogs or goes extinct (thank u Rilo for not including dune-worms, this is the one thing you did right). Crait wouldn’t be vibrant.

But... aha! It’s also distinctly layered. I’ve done three-panel swworlds aesthetics before, so I decided to do that for Crait, too: first a mostly-white graphic like the salt crust, then white+red+yellows in the middle, and finally a dark layer of almost entirely red like the mineral mines.

Choosing Images from Collection

With the color palette and “feel” decided (dying at the surface, then growing richer and redder and angrier as the photoset moved downwards), I was able to choose images.

NEKKID PHOTOSETS SANS ANY EDITING! XXX! But for reference to see both cropping and for reference on choosing.

TOP IMAGE, MOSTLY WHITE:

L-R, TOP-BOTTOM:

I saved this image from my dash at some point and have been tossing it into planets’ folders every time there’s a white-based color scheme. It almost got used for Ilum, but at the last second wasn’t. I felt like it fit the coalescence of Rey’s Force strength here, and also the kind of “last wisps” of Luke Skywalker, well.

“Lifting rocks.”

I’m actually still not 100% whether I should have landed on a vulptex here, but dammit they were one of the only good parts of TLJ. This vulpie baby is on the salt surface, looking out at the blinding sun, so she seemed like a good fit compared to the other caps of vulptices -- the ones loping on the canyon surface at the end were all very motion-blurry.

Carrie in that gorgeous coat in homage to Harrison in Blade Runner makes me weepy, and those were some of the most beautiful shots in the movie. This one had a good balance of white and black, so it could be placed around any level “busyness” in the surrounding photos. Especially since I suckkkk at negative space.

I saved this image to the Crait folder like the day it was announced as a planet in the upcoming Episode VIII and given its first peek. I love it!

Hi, salt flats, and also Star Wars spaceships. I actually had a lot of trouble with the level of green in this image, but the ~essence of Star Wars is PEW PEW SPACE BATTLE, so.

This is an ice sculpture in real life! It reminds me of the vulptices and is cool as hell.

The Millennium Falcon! I toyed with different caps that showed it in actual battle, but the blue would have been hardest to work with in this photoset compared to the others below. Plus, now I can save a bunch of Falcon-in-flight pictures for use on planets that only appear in the novels or comics.

NECESSARY, ICONIC, PERFECT, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT HAPPENED ON CRAIT.

Fine, this is a snowy mountain and not a salt flat, but I liked the striations in color and gentle variations in grayscale.

 This was the palest/least Bright Blue sky of all of the Falcon screencaps from Crait.

I tried a few screencaps of Crait from TLJ, but I landed on using the full-panel image of Crait from Storms of Crait. It has the cleanest definition of the “planet from space” options we have of Crait.

This is a promo image, not a screencap. It’s a much crisper view of the ski-speeders. I love the vivid color difference.

The blue-and-yellow additions to the color scheme didn’t work out, but I did still want to include Storms of Crait. This shot had a little more blue in it than I would have liked, but it has Leia in a ski-speeder back before the salt caused them to rust out, too!

Remember when it seemed like the Crait battle’s new AT-ATs would be super cool and like, do more than stand there menacingly behind Kyle? Me, too.

POE! DAMERON! HAS! NEVER! DONE! ANYTHING! WRONG! IN! HIS! LIFE!

KYLE! HAS! ONLY! EVER! DONE! WRONG! IN! HIS! LIFE!

I tried out like five different tiny-frame-difference screencaps of the ski-speeders kicking up red minerals, and I decided that this one, with a clearly defined spray of red surrounded by white and bluish sky, suited the placement here best: there’s red in the panel to its left as the main color, but minimal red in the above- and below panels.

I wanted to include actual Connix, but she’s wearing yellow and only ever shows up surrounded in brownish-black darkness, so here, have one of my standard Fashion Rebel Officer Stand-Ins instead -- the red and white obviously played a part in picking this shot over the rest of the options from the photoshoot.

I LOVE this slightly mystical shot of a Rebel pilot slash astronaut on a rain-slicked salt flat. How perfect?!

As we get down to the bottom of this middle panel, I wanted to include more destruction and more presence of yellow and orange. This image has a good balance of “negative space” in the sky and salt flat, and then the explosion of Nodin Chavri’s ski-speeder (I think?) ties in well to...

Finn and Rose, post-collision. I wanted to include Rose, and the almost JJ Abrams-esque white starburst in the center of this cap is a good balance to the spray of red around a ski-speeder two panels above.

Luke on Crait in the Rebel Alliance...

And Luke on Crait in the Resistance.

This was a kind of “????” moment of characterization -- and general direction -- in TLJ, but Luke surrounded by red as an old man would fall right below Luke as a young man, on his first mission after the Battle of Yavin, when the three graphics were aligned.

I wanted to use the straight-up concept art of the vulptex, but the black around it was TOO black, if that makes sense? So I layered it over a darkened cap of the vulptex who leads Poe to Rey and freedom. This is one of the very rare shots that I use an edited base image.

Han and Chewie! I had to include Han and Chewie. The unlettered panels from Storms of Crait that show the mineral mines are stunning; I highly recommend heading over to Mike Mayhew’s page and taking a look. The detailing of the crystals is something I wish I could have captured better at this scale.

This is one of the red-sand dunes I saved! Crait doesn’t have any living vegetation, but the drama of the black, stormy sky and the red sand drew me in here.

Some CGI crystal caves... I saved these ages ago for use on Ilum or Dantooine, I think? (Same with what will be #11 below.) I don’t love using CGI, but I think the crags on these crystal growths suited the images from canon!Crait.

A screencap of the TIEs chasing the Falcon through the mines. This was honestly one of the most visually stunning parts of TLJ, and it’s so split-second that most people missed it AND most of the screencaps have a lot of motion-blur. I’m really pleased that this one came out so crisp, and I knew I had to use it as an “anchor image.”

Finn, full-on, in red. I’m realizing belatedly as I write up this tutorial that I showed Poe face-on and Finn face-on, but I stupidly chose to show Rey only from a distance. I AM A FOOL! A FOOL!

Aren’t these resin crystals amazing? The full-size image actually shows them surrounded by snow, by the tree-stump they’re on wouldn’t fit Crait, so I cropped in closer on this image than I did for most of the Crait set.

Another shot of the Falcon in the mines. I like the way the framing of white sunlight here echoes...

Leia’s face, a bright spot in the dark, watching out over the salt flat. :(

(See #5 above!)

And again, the homage of Carrie’s coat looking like Harrison in Blade Runner made me sad, so I THREW IN ANOTHER HAN AND CHEWIE. The mining equipment here shows more detail than in the screencaps above, too.

Coloring 

Like I mentioned waaaay above, in the intro: I never use set colorings for photosets. (Except Halloween Spookstravaganza, because jeez so many of those screencaps are like 240p VHS rips and it’s just not worth putting in Effort(TM).)

That said, I think one thing that I do differently than I see in most tutorials is this first step:

I ALWAYS start Aesthetic photosets by arranging the images and then *BRINGING THE CONTRAST ALL THE WAY DOWN.* This is especially helpful on photosets that include a mix of real photography, CGI screencaps or art, and/or comics panels, but it’s also just useful in general for photosets that use images from a wide variety of places.

The reason I do this is because it helps to “smooth out” the differences in light source, color balance, etc., that are part of the raw base images. For this set, it also helps to define the variations in color between very similar shades: the craters on Crait, the wisps of clouds, etc.

In some cases, I’ll do two layers of Contrast -50. For Crait, I did a later of Contrast -50 and then a layer of Contrast -15.

Then, I Select All > Copy Merged > [Turn Off Contrast Layer View] > Paste As New Layer.

Now, the “smoothed” version is placed as a layer above the raw layer. From there, it depends on the look of the photoset what I do -- sometimes, I leave it as-is, but I almost always lower the opacity on the “smoothed” layer until the level of contrast and balance looks consistent across the whole photoset. For Crait, I ended up with the “smoothed” layer set to Lighten 100%.

Selective Color time. There are two ways I usually start this: either one color at a time -- especially for Aesthetics like Pheryon that will essentially be monochromatic -- or, in this case, I looked at the balance of the three main colors that would carry through the entire Aesthetic.

REDS

Cyan -100 (This brightens the vivacity of the red.) Magenta +100 Yellow +100 Black +35

BLACKS

Cyan 0 Magenta 0 Yellow 0 Black +100

WHITES

Cyan 0 Magenta 0 Yellow 0 Black +100 -- This is NOT my usual setting for adjusting white, and since white is one of the main colors in the Crait Aesthetic, it might seem counterintuitive to make the white darker instead of brighter. However, this will help to make next step of color adjustments “take” on the white/whitish surfaces a lot more easily, and it will also help to balance out the bluish sky areas with the white background areas. (I’m not sure this explanation makes sense? But it’s what I did.)

Then, I Select All > Copy Merged > [Turn Off Selective Color Layer View] > Paste As New Layer > Either COLOR or HUE 100%.

“Hue” is more effective for smaller, more incremental color adjustments -- for BIG SWEEPING COLOR CHANGES, “Color” tends to work better. But it totally depends on the photoset! Try both, and see which you like better.

I feel like this is kind of the step where my process of making aesthetics stops being any different from most tutorials -- but this has been HUGELY helpful for me, a non-graphic designer-person, to be able to create a kind of “base image” that has very similar color values, brightness/contrast, and vibrance.

Sometimes this step helps to create really extreme color differences, such as in the Raydonia Aesthetic, and other times, I use it to just adjust one or two color-values so that there’s more consistency in, say, shades of yellow or shades of green, as in the Takodana Aesthetic, for which I just wanted to create a more cohesive palette of green in particular... it started out with a zillion greens, and I wanted to bring it all together into one “aesthetic.”

I think this step, and the reasoning behind it, are why SO MANY PSDs for aesthetics rely on a layer of either gray or sepiatone-ish set to Darken or Multiply as one of their key layers. But I’m just not about the grimdark life, and if I’m making an AESTHETIC OF A THING, I want the aesthetic POST to actually HAVE THAT THING’S AESTHETICS, you know?! I want to use the colors of the thing that I’m saying is meant to evoke the visuals of the thing!

Anyway. Now you have your BASE IMAGE. Often I’ll Merge All here, just for my own sanity.

Then I go in and make any other other adjustments on a “coloring” level that I think will help with the “vibe” I’m going for! For this Crait set, I definitely needed to bring the brightness up so that the white and red popped. However, bringing up the brightness also swallowed a lot of the detail in the white surfaces -- especially the planetary surface of Crait in that bottom-right space -- so I decreased the contrast again.

Brightness +70 Contrast -50

And then I go in for the macro-level adjustments of color using any mix of Selective Color, Hue/Saturation, and Color Balance that works. For Crait, that was more Selective Color, because since I had decided on my color palette, and it sadly did not include blue, I needed to start by taking out as much of the blue, cyan, and green that I could.

And I’m ngl, I told myself the WHOLE FREAKING TIME I was making this photoset that I needed NOT TO DELETE THE PSD RIGHT AWAY LIKE I USUALLY DO so that I could write up all the settings for this step.

But it was a reflex. And I deleted the PSD right away like I always do.

So suffice to say, I just futzed with the levels one at a time until the RED was brought up a little, the YELLOW was brought up a lot, and everything else was brought down and/or hue-adjusted to sliiiide into being yellow, red, or black/white.

Another Select All > Copy Merged > [Turn Off Selective Color Layer View] > Paste As New Layer > Either COLOR or HUE 100%. I think I also DUPLICATED this layer and set it to SOFT LIGHT 50% and then duplicated it again to SCREEN 50%.

I could have left it like this, but I am me and I am nothing if not Extra All The Time, so I opened up my folder of light textures (and other textures) and decided to Go To Town.

Textures & Effects

For your Aesthetic-Making Purposes, here are the three I used on the Crait set:

The first two were set to Screen 100%, and the bottom one was set to Burn 15%. I layered them in this order.

It still looked incomplete, so I decided to use this POWDR Element from Creative Market, which is actually like 5400x5400 pixels and which I’m not going to share here because I paid for it and don’t want CM to revoke my access or whatever, but it looks like this, only HUGE:

I also set this element to Burn 15% and moved it around the image until it looked the way I wanted it.

Textures and effects aren’t In on Tumblr anymore, but I really like using them -- they add, not to be cheesier than usual, texture to an aesthetic post, and I think that they can also help less-skilled graphic-makers like me to hide any myriad of imperfections in coloring, sharpening, whatever. I’m an especially big fan of this noise element (set as a pattern on Screen), so I’m going to share it here even though I didn’t use it on the Crait set:

Most of my textures have been saved over the last literally twenty years since I started making fannish graphics and photosets, largely from defunct old LiveJournals, but there also used to some great sources for them on Tumblr and still are live sources for them on DeviantArt. Just search around and you’ll find what you want! :)

In conclusion, I think it’s infinitely more fun NOT to rely on premade PSDs or standardized Settings, but I also recognize and fully respect that if I made graphics differently, I would probably get easily 5-10x more notes on each post than I do. But I make graphics the way that’s fun for me, and I just try to learn a little something from every set I make. The GFFA Planets/swworlds in particular have been something that I started, originally, because I wanted to catch up and learn about Star Wars planets that I felt like I was missing because I don’t have any fannish history with the Old EU, and I wanted to learn about them in a way that helped me feel like I was engaging with the SW source material AND making the enormity of the canon more accessible to other newish or casualish fans, like I was two years ago when I started this aesthetic series. I like making aesthetics that are genuinely inspired by the aesthetic of the thing that I’m calling it an aesthetic of, so even when it ends up just looking like rainbow barf (CURSE YOU, NAR SHADDAA!!!) I’m having fun.

THAT SAID, here’s how the time breakdown for the Crait set works out:

TOTAL TIME INCLUDING IMAGE COLLECTION AND SCREENCAPPING: Est. 20 hours.

COLORING AND ACTUAL GRAPHIC-MAKING PART: 7 hours.

WRITING UP THIS TUTORIAL: 5 hours.

So, um, if you are so inclined, here is my Ko-Fi link. I post at least two graphic sets every week, sometimes up to 25 (usually during October).

I hope this was helpful at all! I had a good time thinking about my process in-depth like this, and I would love to get tagged in any aesthetics you might try making using a similar method! :)

#** #*g #*swworlds #|franchise| star wars #*star #25 #**fav

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Bear Symbolism - Master Post

Good morning! So a few weeks ago, @wdway found a bunch of bear stuff to add to the Bear Symbolism Theory. Click on that link to go read the one I posted last season. I knew I wanted to post what she found, but as I read through everything, I knew I’d have to make a master post and include all the bear instances we’ve seen before. Here are all the instances we’ve noticed of the bear symbolism. (As always, if I’m missing any, feel free to let me know and I’ll add them. ;D)

1. 4x03 – When Carl and Hershel leave the prison to gather berries for Hershel’s tea to help the sick, they see a female walker with her leg in a bear trap.

Remember this is the same episode where we see the picture behind Hershel that says, “Smooth seas do not make good sailors.”

This is also important because TD-ers discovered years ago that there was supposed to be a Beth figurine sold with a bear trap accessory. The figurine was never sold that way, and I don’t think we know why, but it was considered as an idea and then scrapped.

(Creds to the original reporters of this. BGIHU, I believe. Unfortunately the account is locked and I cannot reference a URL to the original post.)

I also think it’s important to note that the small game trap Beth stepped on in Alone is very similar to a bear trap. It’s obviously much smaller, and didn’t do nearly as much damage, but the concept is the same, as though it may foreshadow something bigger in the future.

2. 5x03 - Gareth, talking to Bob at the school in 5x03, gives a speech about bears. He says, ““You know, bears…when they start to starve, they eat their young. If the bear dies, the cub dies anyway. But if the bear lives, it can always have another cub.”

It’s the Termites’ way of justifying cannibalism and ties the bear symbolism to Terminus. I can’t help but notice it’s also about children (the cub).

3. You could argue we saw some oblique bear symbolism in S4. Beth’s D.C. spoon could represent the Little Dipper, which is part of Ursa Minor (“the small bear”). And of course she steps in the small game trap in Alone.

4.  5x06 - We catch the barest glimpse of a bear in the domestic abuse shelter Daryl and Carol stay in. 

There is plenty of other interesting symbolism in this room, including a quote about apple trees, pink lamp shades, etc, We also see a stuffed animal tiger. The tiger foreshadows Shiva, and is therefore meant for Carol’s arc. She sleeps on the top bunk where the tiger lays. That would suggest, by default, that the brown bear is about Daryl.

5. 6x10 - Carl tells Judith about the North Star and using it to find one’s way home. (North star is part of the Great Bear constellation.) The Great Bear and Small Bear constellations also have ties to owls, the horse theory, and possibly the deer symbol.

6. Also in S6, the Skybound account posted a modified poster from the film, Revenant with Norman’s face on it. Not only is this film about a man left for dead who then survives and, after a long arduous journey returns to his family, but his “death” or near death was caused by a grizzly bear attack.

7. In season 7, we have the bear Rachel and Cyndie find at Oceanside. It’s been washed in on the tide (much like Tara) and survived a stormy sea. It washes in with the sunrise.

8. 7x12 - We see bears hanging at the carnival Richonne go to.

9.The picture on Judith’s wall. We all spent a lot of last season trying to figure out what it was. It kinda looks like a bear, kinda like a dog, kinda like a horse or pig. Well, any of those would work for our purposes, since they’ve all been used as symbols in the show. There is a breed of dog in Russia that’s often called a Dog Bear. That’s because its face looks like a bear cub but it has the body of a dog. It really is a breed of dog, though. Anyway, that’s what we’re guessing this picture is of. It would combine the bear symbolism with the recurring symbolism of Sirius, the dog star.

10.   Finally, @wdway noticed this in S8. Right before Michonne heads out in this scene, she gives Judith a kiss. 

There are other Beth symbols in this scene, but notice what Judith is playing with. It’s a bear with blond hair. She’s playing with a little Beth bear! (And sitting next to some water, I might add.)

11.   While this isn’t specifically seen in the show, we should also consider the Goldilocks and the Three Bears template. It’s a perfect rule of threes template, and then there are bears and a girl with blond hair. Just saying.

So what does all this mean? What’s up with the bear symbolism? Well, in short, I do believe the bear = Beth. But let’s do a little bit deeper analysis than that. @wdway pointed out that bears hibernate. They disappear, sleep for months at a time, and then wake up again. It really is a great symbol for Beth because of that, and might be the reason the writers chose it to begin with. I’ve even used the word “hibernation” a lot to describe Beth being shot and her vitals becoming unreadable.

The walker in 4×03 had a bear trap around its leg. AMC nearly put out a Beth figurine that included bear trap. That's pretty good proof that the walker in this scene represents Beth.

I've said many times that, where Carl is concerned, this scene foreshadows his death by walker bite. That's mostly because we see a Jim walker in the scene, and Jim in S1, also died from walker bite. So my biggest take away from this has always been that Beth (the walker with the bear trap on its leg) will show up only after Carl dies from the walker bite. That should be any episode now, and the bear symbolism, whatever it means, should show up with her.

Gareth talking about the bear ties bear symbolism to terminus. We’ve thought for a long time that Beth would end up at Terminus. There’s a lot of evidence she will: cop cars at Terminus (Grady symbol), signature items that TF carried left there (Daryl’s poncho, the riot gear), and Beth got a Terminus poster in 4B (why give her a poster if she was never going to end up there?) So this is yet more evidence that Beth will be tied to Terminus somehow. If the bear symbolism = Beth and the bear is tied to Terminus, then Beth must also be tied to Terminus.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about the S4 symbolism, except that it's all tied together. The small game trap could foreshadow the bigger bear trap later on. The D.C. spoon obviously represents her finding her way to D.C. If she navigates by the stars, as Carl suggests, and the stars are part of a constellation called the greater or lesser bear, it suggests the bear symbolism will also have something to do with how she gets to D.C. I'll come back to that.

Consumed, was two episodes before Coda, where Beth was shot. So the bear might show that we’re about to see the beginning of the arc the bear is linked to. After all, Carol and Daryl were searching for Beth in this episode.

The Revenant poster may be the most interesting example. Let's go over the plot of the movie again. Hugh Glass is attacked by a bear and then left for dead. I know in the real life account (just search Wikipedia for Hugh Glass) his buddies left him before he died. He was hurt so badly, they assumed he'd be dead in a few hours, and were going to stay with him, hold his hand until he passed, and then bury him. But then they were attacked by enemies and had to run or die. Later, Glass woke up and dragged himself over 200 miles to get back to his camp.

If you think about it, this matches what we think happened with Beth. Glass’s friends were gonna wait for him to die and then bury him. TF thought Beth was dead. We believe they probably tried to bury her. We think they ran into a horde of walkers (enemies). They had to leave her and run or else they would've died too. So the parallels are very strong there.

If we look at the role the bear played in the film, it would seem the bear symbolism has something to do with why Beth was shot and subsequently left behind. The bear in the film is the thing that inflicted Glass’s wounds, which is what made everyone think he was dead. We still don’t know where the bullet came from, but it wasn't from Dawn's gun.

Another thing to consider about this poster is that Daryl, not Beth, is on it. That could be because Beth was already supposedly dead in S6 and putting her on a poster about things coming back from the dead would be way too obvious. There's a few ways we can look at this.

1)    Daryl represents Beth. Because they couldn't put her on the poster, they put him on it. It might represent Beth, or both of them, since the arcs are so entwined.

2)    Daryl represents himself. While Beth seems to have died physically, Daryl died emotionally. I remember this poster came out right around 6x06. It was part of the reason we thought maybe Beth would return in 6x06. (I did a whole post about it.)

In my group, we’ve discussed that the reason 6x06 is so full Beth symbolism is it's the episode where Daryl completely lost the faith Beth instilled in him. Daryl did die emotionally when he lost her in S5, but we saw him recruiting with Aaron in 5B and trying to convince Rick that they still needed to look for good people in 6x01. He was trying to honor her and live the truth that she taught him. 

In 6x06, while he was trying to help “good people,” Sherry and Dwight screwed him over. It was the final straw that made him let go of what Beth taught him.That would explain a lot of the symbolism in the episode, including the Cherokee Rose. So this poster may have been to show that this was the final nail in Daryl's emotional coffin, but eventually he would return from that emotional death. Well, as of S8, we haven’t seen him return from it. If this is what they were going for, it has yet to happen.

Next, we have the bear in 7x06 with Cyndie and Rachel. This is one of the main reasons I believe the bear = Beth. It was washed in from the ocean and given all the water symbolism around Beth, it’s pretty compelling. I think Tara was 100% a proxy and foreshadow Beth and this episode, and she was washed on the tide. This could be literal (Beth will wash in with the tide as Tara did) or more symbolic. She will come in with the tide (symbolically Oceanside) right at dawn (the beginning of the new arc).

Cyndie suggests they use Sage and Lavender on the bear to improve its condition. @wdway points out those things are used for spiritual healing and have antiseptic, preservative properties.

Then there are the bears in 7x12 with Richonne. The biggest Beth symbolism in this episode is Rick’s death fake out. It looked like the walkers got him, but he escaped. There was yellow involved. There is also a deer in this episode. The deer died, so Rick lived. Given the dead deer we saw in 5x10, that's obviously a Beth thing. So the interesting thing about these carnival bears is:

1. On the foot of this one we see two entwined hearts. I totally think that could represent Richonne, as this episode was totally about two people becoming one (there was plenty of talk about their symbolic marriage in this episode). But I also think that it represents all the soul mate relationships on the show, including Bethyl.

2. The bears are shown right before the death fake out scene. Like, we literally see Richonne running toward the Ferris wheel and past these bears, and in the NEXT scene, Rick’s death fake out happens. So these two things (bears and death fake outs) are definitely related.

And how about Judith? The fact that we have her playing with the bear and there's been a lot of child symbolism around Beth, and she sitting next to water are all very interesting. These are all symbols we seen a lot. @wdway even pointed out there's a tunnel with a water outlet right next to her (Tunnel symbolism).

So what's my wacky theory? It’s more like a series of wacky thoughts. If the bear symbolism represents something that has to do with why Beth was left behind, and it has ties to Terminus, and maybe something about Terminus and its ties to Grady have to do with how Beth got shot.

Gareth talking about a bear and its cub was especially intriguing to me. A cub is the offspring of the bear, so we have child symbolism in that and there's been a lot of child and baby symbolism around Beth. Many people have theorized since S6 that perhaps at some point Judith will be in trouble and Beth will have to save her. As time goes on, especially this season, we’ve wondered if it won’t be Judith, but rather Gracie.

Either way, Gareth’s story justified the parent eating a child to stay alive, because the parent can always have another child. So I'm wondering if Beth will be at Terminus and will end up saving a child that maybe they were going to eat? Could that be Gracie? I don't know.

All the star and constellation stuff suggests that something about the bear symbolism will help Beth get to D.C. I said before that I think she's arriving with the Wolves. I've also said the Wolves could be the people who take down Grady. Remember Gimple also confirmed that Crazy Tattoo Guy (one of the people who took over Terminus) would be tied to a bigger group of bad guys. That could be the Saviors, but it could also be the Wolves. I could put this together one of fifty ways, but it’s all conjecture until we know more.

What it comes down to is that Beth, Terminus, possibly the Wolves, and the bear symbolism all part of one circle of events. These events stretch back to S5. Because of the Sasha/Tyreese theory, I think whatever Sasha and Gabriel were talking about in 5x16, goes back not just back to Coda and the missing 17 days, but probably back to Terminus. I think there were a lot of things we didn't see in S5.

Bottom line: Whatever the bear symbolism represents, it should be arriving with Beth any episode now. I’m excited to see how it all pans out and I’ll be on the look for more bear symbolism as we go along.

P.S. Minor Spoilers: In episode 8x11, Dr. Carson supposedly gets caught in a bear trap. Hmmm.

Can anyone think of any bear symbolism I missed?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here

[garretschuelke]

Godan: Omega Wolf Blues, part 3

(As featured on Tuesday Serial. Read part two here)

The first day of December in Chicago was sunny and nearly cloudless—a stunning change to the previous month, in which the city was hammered with near-daily snow storms.

Chicagoan's, while still bundled up, obviously welcomed the changes,. Many of them took the chance to hang out at Millennium Park.

Some took selfies around The Bean, which was slick with melting snow, while others rented out skates and hit the McCormick Tribune ice rink.

Gareth, Nang, Callisto, and Lana were among the latter.

Two teenagers raced past Callisto, causing her to fall. Lana noticed this, and immediately skated over.

“Congrats on your first fall,” Lana said, bending over, “you lasted a tad bit longer than I expected.”

“Well, I've walked on ice before,” Callisto reached her hand up, “so I didn't think it would be that hard.”

Callisto's sleeve slid down, exposing her gray fur-covered arm. Lana quickly pulled her up. “Try to keep yourself covered up,” she said, pulling Callisto's sleeve back into place.

“Sorry, sorry!” Callisto said, hoping that Lana was not mad at her. She started slipping. Lana took her by the shoulders and led them to the side.

“It's cool,” Lana replied. “It's kinda funny though, seeing you hairless from, like, the neck up. It's like those YouTube vids of shaved dogs that I showed you.”

“Ew, no!” Callisto said, sticking her tongue out.

“Ruff ruff to you too,” Lana laughed, taking her vape pen out of her pocket.

“Where's Gareth and Nang at?” Callisto asked.

Lana took a hit as she looked around. “Right there,” she said, exhaling as she pointed at the center of the rink.

Gareth and Nang were holding hands, spinning around slowly. Gareth then pulled Nang to him, and they kissed.

“They made up pretty fast,” Callisto said, folding her arms.

“They've always been combative,” Lana said. “I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons they're attracted to each other.”

“What're the other reasons?”

“Well, they're both superhumans, they both have fangs and claws,” Lana took another hit of her vape. She grinned. “Oh, and Gareth is really good in bed—Haruki and I can attest to that. I wouldn't feel surprised if she feels the same way.”

“Oh,” Callisto replied as she watch Gareth and Nang grab the two teenagers whose antics knocked her down earlier.

“You haven't slept with him yet?” Lana asked.

“What? No!” Callisto shouted. “I'm not into him like that!”

“Quiet!” Lana, said, putting her finger to Callisto's lips as she tried not to laugh.

Callisto moved Lana's finger away from her lips. “Aren't you weirded out with Gareth sleeping with other people besides you?”

Lana shook her head. “Nah, we're just friends. I have other lovers too—he just happens to be the one I live with and, you know, is probably the best out of all of them, being superhuman and all.”

Callisto nodded, and they both watched as Nang lectured the teenagers as Gareth looked on, laughing.

Callisto broke the silence. “So, who is this Haruki person I keep hearing about?”

Lana blew out a cloud. “You don't know?”

“I've seen a picture of him, you, Gareth, and another guy, and I've asked Gareth about it, but he got really sad and wouldn't talk.”

Lana sighed. “The other guy in the photo you saw in the living room was Tucker. They were our friends and housemates.”

“Where are they now?”

Lana took a deep breath. “Here's the sad part that Gare probably doesn't want to talk about: they were kidnapped.”

“Kidnapped?”

Lana nodded. “By the Rudkuses—a gang Gareth then pretty much took down. He spent the entire year afterwards looking for them, fighting criminals, and doing other hero-related stuff, but he says he hasn't found any traces of them.” She took a quick hit of her pen. “It was me who convinced him to go back to Michigan to investigate his hometown's werewolf problem, since he was running himself ragged, and I thought him getting out of town for a bit would do him some good.” Lana threw back her hair. “From what he told me, it wasn't.”

Callisto looked at her skates, grimacing. Lana realized what she was implying.

“Hey, you're cool though!” She rubbed Callisto's back. “Really, Gareth and I like having you around!”

“Thanks,” Callisto mumbled.

Lana leaned into Callisto's ear. “I never told you this before, but I do get a kick out of shaving you. It reminds me of the cat I had when I was a kid would throw a shit fit whenever I tried to do it it her.”

Callisto giggled. Lana said “Uh, oh,” as she watched security confront Nang, Gareth, and the teenagers.

“Have you ever noticed that Gareth wears the same clothes all the time?” Callisto asked, referring to Gareth's black sweatshirt, gray sleeveless shirt, gray pants, and black combat boots.

“Yeah, he's not really much for fashion,” Lana said, “and, according to him, he never gets cold.”

“I mean, he wears the same clothes all the time,” Callisto nudged Lana. “Nobody notices?”

Lana shrugged. “Why would anyone care about some random gutter punk?”

Up in Chicago's skyline, Upton watched the four friends, streaming their activities to Mysta, who was using her tablet to check over the final preparations of her plan.

“All right, I think everything is good to go,” She put down her tablet, leaned back in her chair, and watched as Gareth and Nang were led off of the rink by security. “You ready to do this, Upton?”

Upton nodded his head.

“Good. Now go do what—” a figure flew past Upton's field of vision. “Wait, zoom in on whatever just flew by you.”

Upton did so, revealing it to be White Streak, who then landed on a rooftop overlooking Millennium Park.

“Hold on, Upton,” Mysta said. “Things are about to get more interesting.”

“I bet the security over at the Ribbon wouldn't let this shit fly!” Gareth yelled at the security guards who threw them out.

“Please don't ruin our access to that rink either,” Lana said.

Nang's phone vibrated. She took out it out and saw that it was a text from White Streak.

“Seriously,” Gareth said as he sat down on the bench and started taking off his skates. “I didn't act like that when I was his age!”

“Really?” Lana sat down, smiling. “You, of all people, weren't a dickhead when you were a teenager?”

“Nah, I was more moody and withdrawn,” Gareth then thought it over. “Actually, I only skated a handful of times before my Dad put an end to that.”

“Why did he do that?” Callisto asked.

Gareth grimaced. “Forget I mentioned that.”

“I got a text from Sanders,” Nang said, sitting down on the bench opposite of them, “he's waiting on one of the rooftops across the street.”

“Awesome!” Gareth began untying his skates faster. “Last chance, Lana, wanna join us?”

Lana shook her head. “Sorry, my shift starts in three hours.”

Gareth gave a heavy, exaggerated sigh. “Okay, I'll record it for ya.”

Lana giggled. “Thanks, since I obviously don't know how to torrent.”

“My bootlegs feature all the shaking, but none of the malware,” Gareth got up, dropped his skates off at the rental desk.“I'll see you later tonight.”

“I'll make sure there's plenty of salted pork left for you and Callisto when you get back,” Lana joked as she and Gareth hugged.

“What an angel you are,” Gareth kissed her on the cheek,  and turned to Nang and Callisto. “Well, gang, lets hit up the nearest alley.”

Nang and Callisto bid Lana farewell, and followed Gareth outside. Callisto tugged on Gareth's sleeve. “We're really not gonna have to eat that stuff again, are we?”

Gareth snorted. “Fuck no!” he laughed. “That's just something Mary like to whip up for new housemates.”

Callisto sighed. “Good, I don't think my stomach could take another round of that.”

“Let's go down this one,” Nang said, pointing towards an alley.

Gareth and Callisto followed Nang across the street and into the alley. After making sure that there were no security cameras around, they ducked between two dumpsters.

“I'm surprised that we haven't been caught yet,” Callisto said as she and Nang put on their domino masks.

“If we were busted,” Gareth said as his fingernails grew into claws and his hair turned gray, “I would just claim I'm selling you two drugs.”

“Yeah, you know, normal stuff someone would do in an alley,” Nang said.

“Likewise, I could claim I'm prostituting myself.”

Nang pretended to gag. Callisto giggled.

“Admit it,” Godan tied on his mask, “you would gladly pay up to have me.”

“I haven't done it yet.” Nang looked around the corner. “Coast is clear.”

They sprang upwards all at once, hopping onto a fire escape. They then leapt onto different window ledges until they landed on the roof of the building.

“STREAK!” Godan yelled, looking around “WHERE YOU AT?!”

“OVER HERE!” White Streak yelled, waving from the building behind them.

Godan, Nang, and Callisto ran over and joined him. “Got the tickets?” Godan asked as they slapped hands.

“Yes sir, Mister Gray Wolf,” White Streak replied, showing them the tickets on his phone.

“What're we seeing?” Callisto asked.

“A documentary,”

“That's different from the usual crap we go to,” Nang said.

Back in her lab, Mysta gripped her armrest. “That's how we're gonna do it now, Upton. You ready?”

Upton nodded. He started to power up his thrusters, and released a tentacle, as he slowly descended.

“You really don't see the irony in seeing a documentary about mass surveillance?” Godan asked.

“What's the problem?” White Streak asked. “Not interesting enough for you?”

“No, I'm cool with seeing it—I just find it funny that an FBI agent is interested in seeing what is probably, in part, a critical documentary on an activity that you guys engage in every single day.”

“First of all, that's not my department. Nang and I are all about monitoring and stopping superhuman criminal activities here in Chicago.”

“Yeah, mass surveillance.”

“Not the type they're talking about in this film! Second, I do have my own reservations regarding surveillance policies.”

“I'm sure your bosses really cares about your opinion.”

Nang slapped Godan alongside the head. “Stop being a dick to the guy who is treating us to a free movie!”

White Streak released three tentacles. “All aboard the White Streak express! Next stop: Logan Square.”

Mysta watched as Nang allowed White Streak to wrap his tentacle around her. “NOW!” she commanded.

Upton darted towards the group. He shot his tentacle and wrapped it around Callisto. He veered upwards again, knocking over Godan.

“THE FUCK—” Godan yelled, scrambling to his feet.

“GARETH!” Callisto yelled. Godan looked over and saw Upton, hovering a few feet away, with Callisto struggling to free herself.

Godan froze, and blinked a couple of times. “Upton?” he said, staring at the gang leader he thought he had defeated over a year ago.

“Who the hell is that?!” Nang asked, whipping off her coat, revealing her usual uniform.

“I don't know,” White Streak zoomed in on Upton's face. “Wait, is that—”

“UPTON!” Godan, filled with rage, launched himself towards the android.

“Come back to base,” Mysta commanded. “Use one of our underground tunnels.”

Upton nodded, and headed southward, narrowly avoiding Godan's slash. Godan growled, and gave chase.

“WAIT UP!” White Streak yelled. He made sure Nang was properly secured, and they flew off after them.

“Upton...” Nang said, taking a small metallic tube out of her pocket, “that name sounds familiar.”

“I've briefed you on him before,” White Streak said, tying to catch up with Godan as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop, trying to grab the android. “He's the former leader of the Rudkuses.”

“Oh, yeah,” Nang twisted the tube, transforming it into her spear, “but Gareth said he killed him.”

“I believe him,” White Streak started streaming and recording what was occurring, sending out a signal to his FBI contact, “but it looks like Upton got himself the same type of “upgrade” that I did!”

Godan made another leap at Upton, who just raised his hand and fired an energy blast at him. It hit the Gray Wolf in the chest, sending him plummeting towards the ground.

“CATCH HIM!” White Streak yelled.

Nang shot a web at Godan, catching him by the shoulder. She braced herself. Godan grabbed the web and steadied himself.

They entered the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Upton sent out commands to a nearby garage, which immediately opened up. He flew into it, with Callisto screaming for help.

“He's not getting away from me!” Godan yelled, slashing the web line off of him. He landed, and dashed into the garage as the door closed behind him.

“Hang on tight!” White Streak  yelled, bringing Nang closer to him. Nang shielded herself. White Streak aimed his arm at the door and blasted it. The door exploded, and they flew through the smoke.

“Excellent choice, Upton!” Mysta said, getting up from her seat and heading up onto the platform. “Now lead them here.”

“What is this place?” Nang asked, looking around. “Some kind of bunker?”

“Could be that,” White Streak said as they flew down the large, illuminated tunnel. His com buzzed, indicating that his FBI contact was trying to reach him. He accepted the call. “Red Seal, we got a problem: Upton's still alive—he's been turned into an android, and he has Callisto, the other wolf girl I told you about.  Myself, Agent Tu, and Godan are in pursuit in some tunnel located in the Back of the Yards.”

“Let me see if I can tag him,” Nang said, thrusting her palm forward.

“DON'T!' White Streak yelled. “You might hit Godan!”

“Like that's ever stopped him before!”

White Streak groaned. “Lock onto my location,” he said to Red Seal. “What's that? Yeah, send her over too. I'll take whatever help you can manage.”

“Who's Red Seal sending?”

“Our new recruit.”

Nang rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on—not her!”

The tunnel suddenly became darker. A door opened. Upton boosted his thrusters, and entered. The door immediately closed.

“Goddammit!” Godan yelled, winding up, He punched the steel door, putting a huge dent in it. He recoiled, holding his hand.

“You all right, Wolf,” White Streak asked as he landed.

“I'll heal in a sec,” Godan shook his hand. “I should have obliterate this door with one blow.”

The lights suddenly turned back on, revealing the end of the tunnel to be lined with pods built into the wall.

“Oh, God,” Nang said, cringing as she scanned the unconscious, grotesque subjects encased in the pods.

White Streak gulped. “These are the same exact pods that I was imprisoned in.”

Godan's attention from the door changed towards a pod that was next to him. The subject inside looked like he had been stitched back together. He looked closer, and saw the subjects face, which featured noticeable fangs.

Godan's eyes widened. He growled, and got into a battle stance.

“What?!” Nang said, joining his side, her spear at the ready.

“It's Ruthven!” Godan said, “That vampire Wolf Savage and I took out in Kalamazoo!”

White Streak checked out the vampire. “He looks like he's in the worst shape out of all of them.”

“How is he even alive?!” Godan glared. “We blew him the fuck up!”

“How do you know he's alive?”

Lord Ruthven suddenly opened his eyes. Upon seeing Godan, he smashed himself again the glass, fangs bared, his screaming only slightly muffled by the preservation fluid.

“SHIT!” White Streak yelled, aiming his palm at the vampire as he jumped back.

Godan bared his own fangs, ready to fight.

“WELCOME, SUPERHUMANS!” Mysta's voice blared out of a speaker. A screen above the door came to life, showing her sitting at a desk, grinning. “You kept up pretty well with my Upton. Guess I'll have to increase his speed later.”

That's the woman I've seen on the news, Godan thought, remembering the night he thought he defeated Upton.

“Mysta Avon,” White Streak said, lowering his arms. “Thanks for revealing yourself like this—it confirms all the bureaus suspicions.”

Mysta laughed. “It seriously took the FBI this long to find about my activities?” She pressed a button on her console. “Looks like I was paranoid for nothing.”

“I saw her on the news before,” Godan whispered to Nang. “Who is she again?”

Nang glared at him. “Come on, Gar,” she said , shaking her head. “Famous Chicago-based scientist, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, head of Mysta Industries...”

“Weapons manufacturer, gangster, human trafficker,,” White Streak interrupted, “and my personal favorite: mad scientist.”

“That's me, all right,” Mysta confirmed, leaning back in her chair. “But enough talk about my rep—there's lots of things I admire about you, Godan: your strength, your speed, your durability, and that incredible healing factor,” Mysta sighed, seemingly lost in thought, “but your intelligence and morals could use some improvement.”

Godan growled. Nang put her hand on his shoulder and told him to calm himself. She heard the sound of marching behind them. She turned around and looked down the tunnel.

“What have you done with Callisto?” White Streak asked.

“Oh, she's right here by my side,” Mysta reached over and turned the camera towards Callisto, who was bound to the wall by her hands and feet, her mouth covered with tape.

“Let's get this door open,” Godan said, walking past White Streak. He put both hands on the handle, and began to pull.

“Oh, please try!” Mysta said, pointing the camera back towards herself. “I made that door with your strength level in mind—as I could calculate, at least. You've dented it a bit, so I was a tad bit off—but I still think I did a good job.”

“Godan, Streak,” Nang got into a battle stance.

“She's got a point,” White Streak said to Godan as he pulled on the door in vain. “If it's so strong that even you can't get through it, then we have a problem.”

Godan stopped pulling. “No shit, Einstein,” he muttered, breathing heavily.

“GUYS!” Nang said, backing up.

“You got two immediate problems, actually,” Mysta said, resting her chin on her hand.

Nang turned White Streak around. She then grabbed Godan by the hood and yanked him from away from the door.

“WHAT!” Godan yelled.

Nang pointed her spear down the tunnel. Before them was a group, decked out in black hazmat suits, marching towards them.

“What the fuck are those things?!” White Streak asked, raising his arms towards them.

“They're some kind of zombies,” Godan got in front of them, claws up. “I dealt with them last year.”

“Very scientific explanation,” Mysta said. “ I simply call them 'Assistants'. How about we see if you three can take them on while trying to get the door open?”

“I can't tell how many there are,” Nang said, readying her spear.

Godan spread his arms out in front of them.”You guys get the door open. I'll handle these freaks.”

“Think you can manage them all?” White Streak asked.

“Oh yeah,” Godan flexed his claws, “I'll tear them apart!”

“Wait, we need you to open the door though.” Nang said.

“You heard the mad scientist—the door was made to match my strength.”

“How the hell are we supposed to manage then? We're not as strong as you!”

All at once, the Assistants stopped marching. They reached into their side compartments and took out batons.

“Fine—work on it until I take them out. I need a break from yanking on that handle anyway.”

Nang nodded. Godan gave them a thumbs up, and rushed towards the Assistants.

“He needs a break,” Nang sighed, putting away her spear.

“Come on, let's get this door open,” White Streak said. He went up to the door and saw that the doors space was expanded after Godan dented it. He stuck his hands in it, got a grip, and began pulling on it.

Mysta hummed.”Maybe I should have equipped them with guns,” she said, zooming in on Godan, who was easily tearing through the Assistants. “No, that still would have been a bad idea, with all the subjects I have stored along the walls.”

Callisto tried to say something, but her voice was muffled by the tape.

“You're absolutely right!” Mysta looked down at her android. “Upton, I'm not mad—I should have been more specific—but next time you lead high-powered superhumans to me, please go though a tunnel that doesn't have any experiments, expensive tech, and whatnot in it. Got it?”

Upton nodded.

“ It's nice having a silent servant, but nothing beats honest feedback, right?” Mysta looked back at Callisto, who glared at her.

“Should have thought of this sooner,” White Streak said, backing up. He aimed his arms at the other side of the door, and unleashed a thin, steady stream of energy at it.

“My turn,” Nang said, cracking her knuckles and taking up where White Streak left off.

“How's Wolf doing?” White Streak asked, increasing the strength of his energy beam.

Nang looked down the tunnel. She saw the ravaged bodies of the Assistants littering the floor. Further back, she saw blood and body parts flying everywhere as zombies surrounded Godan.

“He's having the time of this life,” Nang said, as she began to pull.

“It won't be long now,” Mysta said. She switched to another camera, which showed a lone Assistant standing back, observing the battle. “Good, he's in place.”

Another baton hit Godan in the back of the head. Enraged, he roared, turned around, and swiped at the Assistant, cutting its head off. Another Assistant wrapped its arms around the Gray Wolf's neck and his foot in front of his leg, sending them to the floor. The other Assistants piled on top of them.

Godan gagged on the smell of decaying flesh and rancid blood. “All right, I'm done with this shit!” he mumbled.

He quickly got to his knees and, swinging his arms, sent the Assistants flying off. He broke away from the Assistant that had him in a choke hold, and put his fist through its head. Godan then sped around the area and cut off the heads of each of the remaining Assistants before they could recover.

“God, what a mess,” Godan said, wiping his claws on his pants and looking around. He saw the lone Assistant still hanging back.

“How many of you freaks did Mysta make?!” Godan yelled, preparing to charge at it.

The Assistant began walking towards him, revealing that it was wearing a gray hazmat suit. It took off its gloves, revealing claws.

“Well, this might be different,” Godan said, getting into a battle stance.

The door moved slightly. Surprised, Nang stopped pulling.

“Keep going!” White Streak yelled.

“Just catching my breath, boss!” Nang said.

They heard a loud crash. They looked over, and saw Godan flying towards them. They got out of the way, allowing the Gray Wolf to smash into the door.

“GODAN!” Nang yelled, kneeling down next to him.

“Thanks for the save, guys,” Godan mumbled, scrambling to his feet.

They looked over and saw the Gray Assistant rushing towards them, claws at the ready. Nang shot a web at it. The Gray Assistant easily tore through it.

“I've got him!” Godan said, getting up and charging at it.

“We should help,” Nang said.

“No, we almost got this door open!” White Streak unleashed some tentacles and began pulling at the door with them. Nang returned to her previous position and went back to pulling as well.

“Perfect!” Mysta said as she watched the fight between Godan and the Gray Assistant continue. “Well, maybe I'm calling it perfect too early, but it looks promising.”

A loud squeal caught Mysta's attention, and made Upton get into a battle stance. The door that White Streak and Nang were pulling on slowly moved, creating a larger gap.

“It's about to get really fun in here,” Mysta stood up and looked at Callisto. “I can tell you're just as excited as I am.”

The Gray Assistant stomped Godan's foot. “REALLY?!” Godan yelled, hopping back on one foot. The Gray Assistant suddenly appeared in front of the Gray Wolf, elbowing him the chin. Godan swiped both claws at it. The Gray Assistant jumped back.

“That Mysta woman made you smart enough to do cheap shots,” Godan said, peeling the fabric off the one claw that connected with the zombies hazmat suit.

The Gray Assistant did not say a word. It got into a battle stance similar to Godan's. Godan snicked, and rushed at it.

White Streak saw Nang begin to breath heavily. He stopped blasting at the door frame. “Let me handle the rest,” he said, nudging his way between Nang and the door. He took a hold of the gap with both hands, breathed deeply, and began pulling again.

Mysta sighed heavily, “I'm sick of waiting.” She bent down and opened her desks bottom cabinet. She took out a smooth, thin crown that looked like an upside down horseshoe, and put it on her head. She pressed the button on the back to turn it on, and closed her eyes. A few seconds later, a red light appeared in front of the crown, followed by a beep.

Mysta opened her eyes. UPTON, CAN YOU HEAR ME?, she asked telepathically. Upton looked up at her and nodded.

“Excellent!” Mysta pressed another button on her console. The door of the lab suddenly opened, sending White Streak to the floor.

Godan threw the Gray Assistant at the pod containing Lord Ruthven. He raised his fist and ran at it.

COME TO UPTON'S SIDE, Mysta commanded the Gray Assistant. The zombie nodded, stood up, and ran towards the lab.

Godan's fist went through the pod door. Lord Ruthven took the opportunity to bust through the nearly-shattered glass.

“SHIT!” Godan said as he was showered in fluid and glass. He grabbed Lord Ruthven by the throat and, ignoring the vampires claws piercing his shoulders, threw him down the tunnel.

“LET'S DO THIS!” Nang yelled, whipping out her spear. The Gray Assistant zipped past her. “Who's—” Godan then zipped past her as well.

“Congratulations, superhumans!” Mysta said, arms outstretched. Upton and the Gray Assistant stood in front of the platform, arms crossed. “You're all officially the second, third, and fourth guests to ever visit my underground lab!”

White Streak aimed his arm at her. “Mysta Avon, you're under—”

Mysta's desk phone rang. “Hold on a sec, guys.” Mysta picked it up. “Yes?”

Godan saw Callisto tied up. With a growl, he leapt towards her. The Gray Assistant leapt upwards in front of him. It threw a punch. Godan crossed his face with his arms and took the blow, sending him back to the ground. Nang immediately threw her spear at Mysta. Upton unleashed a tentacle and swatted it away.

“Okay, I'll send up some of my Assistants to stop her,” Mysta said. She saw White Streak shoot an energy blast her way. She pressed a button, which brought down a glass dome, encasing the platform. White Streak's blast dissipated upon impact. “Yes, yes, I'll contact the authorities—just relax, and tend to your gunshot wounds the best you can.”

Mysta hung up the phone. “Sorry about that—it seems I have an unwelcome guest upstairs.” Mysta narrowed her eyes. “Scratch that—TWO unwanted guests.”

A loud, pained scream came from the hallway. They all turned around and saw Lord Ruthven dashing towards them, eyes bulging.

“This is getting way too out of control!” White Streak said, Godan and Nang prepared themselves.

“I got this,” Mysta pressed a button that closed the door just as Lord Ruthven was near the entrance. The vampire smashed into the door. Mysta laughed. “There, that's better.”

“Like I said before, Mysta,” White Streak turned back around, “we're taking you in!”

“Let's get real here, Agent Sanders: none of you are leaving this place.” Callisto began to struggle. Mysta smacked her. “You're all MY subjects now!”

“LET HER GO!” Godan yelled, baring his fangs.

The center of Mysta's crown glowed. “I want you to try and stop me.” Upton and the Gray Assistant advanced towards them. “It'll be easier to control you when you're dead.”

Nang broke away from the group, grabbed her spear, got into a battle stance.

“Oh, you don't have an opponent, do you?” Mysta's crown blinked. “Allow me to change that.”

The door next to Nang exploded, sending her skidding across the floor. Godan bent down and caught her.

A large android, equipped with a minigun for one arm, and a flame thrower for the other, entered the lab.

“It's a Man of War!” White Streak said, unleashing four tentacles. “I thought we got rid of them all!”

“You did,” Mysta stretched her fingers. “this is just my take on them. What do you think?”

Godan focused on the face, which was half-scarred with burnt flesh. His eyes widened.

“His name was Fold—a muscle for the Rudkuses. You might remember his as the one who massacred everything in that Boystown convenience store over a year ago.” She looked at Godan, “including those two friends you been searching for, Gray Wolf of Chicago.”

Godan tensed up, and began breathing heavily.

“Calm down, Gareth,” Nang whispered.

“You know, I think I'll give Upton and my Assistant a break. This will be a good chance to see what Fold can do, now that he's a true berserker!”

Fold raised his minigun.

“GET BACK!” White Streak yelled. Godan and Nang did so as White Streak blasted the floor, creating a smoke screen and a crater. Fold began shooting at them.

“THE FUCK KIND OF MOVE IS THAT?!” Godan yelled, crouching down behind the debris.

“The kind of move you do when you don't know what to do next,” White Streak said.

“Godan may not be a fan of it, but I applaud your quick thinking!” Mysta said.

There was another explosion, destroying the door on the other side of the room.

“GODDAMMIT!” Nang yelled, covering her head. “NOW WHAT?!”

Mysta telepathically commanded Fold to stop. He did so, and everyone directed their attention to the smoking hole in the wall.

“Okay, who the hell just blew up my stairwell?” Mysta asked.

“Don't worry, I just blew up your door,” a voice said. “I didn't feel like messing with the lock.”

Out from the smoke stepped Dia, wearing a business suit and a utility belt, with a Desert Eagle in each hand.

“You've finally made it, Agent Patrick,” White Streak yelled.

“ 'Agent Patrick' ?!” Godan glared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Unfortunately, he's not,” Nang sighed.

“Well, what a surprise!” Mysta clapped her hands. “Tell me, Dia, are those vampiric abilities I gifted you still working out? How about all that fur I removed—any grow back?”

Godan grabbed White Streak by his shoulder and pulled him in. “What are thinking, man?!”

“Hey, she wanted to become an agent after I had dinner with her. She's taken to it better than I thought she would!”

Dia saw Callisto hanging on the wall, and glared at Mysta. “Let my sister go, Doctor Avon.”

Mysta shook her head, and grinned. “You know, after all the good I've done for you, you could at least let me have one werewolf to play with!”

Dia began shooting at the glass. Bullets ricocheted everywhere—one of which hit Godan in the shoulder. Godan covered the wound with his hand, and growled at White Streak.

“I didn't say she was perfect,” White Streak said. They heard Dia shout 'SORRY!' at them.

UPTON, TAKE CARE OF WHITE STREAK IN THE OTHER TUNNEL, Mysta telepathically commanded. ASSISTANT, TAKE CARE OF GODAN IN THE MORGUE.

Upton and the Gray Assistant nodded. Upton blasted the debris they were hiding behind, obliterating it. Before anyone could react, White Streak and Godan were taken hold of, and whisked them away.

“STREAK!” Nang yelled, looking around. “GODAN!”

“You all right?” Dia asked, joining Nang by her side.

“Nang glared. “DO I LOOK LIKE I'M ALL RIGHT?!”

Dia backed away. “Excuse me for actually being worried about you!”

Fold walked up to them. He aimed his minigun and flame thrower at the agents.

“I should probably start worrying about things that actually matter,” Dia said, aiming her guns at the Man of War.

#garret schuelke #tuesday serial #godan #serialized fiction #fiction #superheroes #superhero fiction #pulp #chicago #bakunin incorporated

[iesorno]

Gareth was given an award by this site, so obviously we think he is great. I actually think his work is fascinating both in it’s evolution and it’s ability to be some of the most human and moving comics I’ve read without anything figurative or linear even being hinted at.

Which, to pick apart that sentence means that I think Gareth produces some amazing, human and meaningful comics. It also means that watching the evolution of his art style and his writing is as much a fascinating story as the work he produces.

His sudden explosion into colour work made me smile and breathless, but none of it surprised me as much as the warmth of Petrichor, possibly one of the truest works of modern poetry and of comics you could hope to encounter. Honestly a masterwork that should be read far and wide.

  I’ll let him blather about himself now, rather than run off my mouth anymore.

Find Gareth Here

He’s @grthink everywhere

website         twitter          instagram

buy Petrichor (editor’s note — I’m telling you not asking you)

  Can you tell us a bit about the first creator whose work you recognised?

It’s a genuinely tough one to answer. When I first started reading 2000AD it was just a bunch of stuff by a bunch of people, and slowly it would have dawned on me that it was actually people behind the drawing and the words. The panel I remember having the most impact on me was from Harlem Heroes by Steve Dillon and Kev Walker, with a soldier getting stabbed in the back by a lady in cycling shorts – there was the violence, but it was so stylish, and loads of negative space. I think the first artist I really paid attention to was Chris Weston, especially on Canon Fodder. The first writer I distinctly remember having an influence was John Smith, a lot of my school assignments had stop-start rhythms and mentions of ‘bursts of white noise/static on the spine’ stuff like that, which I was trying to nick directly from Tyranny Rex.

Harlem Heroes art by Steve Dillon

Canon Fodder written by Mark Millar art by Chris Weston

Tyranny Rex written by John Smith art by Steve Dillon

Which creators do you remember first copying?

Timewise, it’s hard to separate them, it was a big glow of influences all at once. Looking at when I was 12/13 or so, I was copying scantily clad women by Liam Sharp, Batman Adventures by Mike Parobeck, non-footed muscle-bound superheroes in the Liefeld age of Marvel House Style and Strontium Dogs by Nigel Dobbyn.

Mike Parobeck

Nigel Dobbyn

Who was the creator that you first thought ‘I’m going to be as good as you!’?

Haha, I remember looking at Marvel Superhero comics and thinking ‘well, if I can’t work out how feet work, just make them a nondescript arrow shape, or hide them behind a rock or some smoke. So, Liefeld. There was definitely a sense of ‘if they can get away with it, so can I’ which I don’t mean pejoratively.

Rob Liefeld

Which creator or creators do you currently find most inspiring?

Man alive, this is a tough one. Most of my cues for inspiration come from musicians at the moment, I think. A few years ago I was reading a feature about Doseone that had a quote about him being one of the decade’s most important artists, and I don’t know if they meant art-artists, or musician-artists, but it redefined what an artist could be for me, and I spent a lot of time (and still do, really) trying to catch some of that sense when I make visual art. His approach to storytelling when he made the Hour Hero Yes albums with Subtle was probably the biggest single influence when I started making The Intercorstal, and ‘Less Is Orchestra’ which he made with Alias is one of my favourite albums of the last few years. There’s a line in it that goes ‘My zodiac sign’s “Don’t Feed The Animal”‘ which is just incredible. Lately I’ve been really influenced by God’s Wisdom & Lucy and their solo stuff, they share a lot of the elements I find inspirational in other art forms, which is a DIY attitude and distinct, individual voices that aren’t too fussed about whether people understand where they’re coming from.

G is for Deep – Doseone

Exiting Arm – Subtle

On Thin Ice – Gods Wisdom & Lucy

  Which creators do you most often think about?

I’ve already mentioned Doseone, so let’s put him in the drawer for a second. Probably the other one is Captain Beefheart? In terms of, if he can shout ‘A squid eating dough in a polyethelyne bag is fast & bulbous, got me?’, then I can make a comic about car parks that’s coloured in highlighter pens. The mainstream comic artist I talk about the most is definitely Sal Buscema, without a doubt. And in the small press world, it’s impossible not to look at the energy Paul Jon Milne puts into his comics and not immediately want to do something with as much… guts? as he puts in.

Can you name the first three creative peers that come into your head?

Paul Jon Milne

Grave Horticulture by Paul Jon Milne

  Tom Ward

Merrick The Sensational Elephantman by Tom Ward

Lucy Sullivan

Everything else

Concrete/Field

The 50Hz Hum Of Power – Concrete/Field

The Leaf Library

The Leaf Library

Walter Gross

The Fra Mauro Highlands – Walter Gross

Finally, can you tell us a bit about your recent work and yourself?

I’m Gareth A Hopkins, an artist and comics creator. I live in Essex with my wife and two kids, I think about ghosts a lot, drink terrible coffee and really hate gardening. I’ve been making comics for a long time, but only really thought I could do anything with them since 2016. I usually do everything.

I’m working on a short story collection called Explosive Sweet Freezer Razors which will be made up of 15 or 16 different short comics – one of those, Bullwise, will be appearing in the next edition of Emanations, and ‘Thunders’ is currently available to buy.

Bullwise Gareth A Hopkins page 2

I’ve got a week’s residency coming up in September as part of Young Blood Initiative’s ‘Wake Up And Smell The Tear Gas‘ programme of events – details here:

Young Blood Initiative – Wake Up And Smell The Tear Gas

Thank you very much for taking the time to fill this out and let us into your mind.

  all art copyright and trademark its respective owners.

content copyright iestyn pettigrew 2020

    Small (press) oaks – Gareth A Hopkins @grthink goes deep into his inspirations from 2000ad thru some awesome indie rap #comics #minicomics #smallpres #abstractart Gareth was given an award by this site, so obviously we think he is great. I actually think his work is fascinating both in it’s evolution and it’s ability to be some of the most human and moving comics I’ve read without anything figurative or linear even being hinted at.

#art #comics #interview

[feelingfredly]

MI6-Hundred Thousand Scoville Heat Units, Or, The Heat It Takes to Make an M

Summary: MI6 is full of survivors.  The new M, Gareth Mallory, should fit right in.             

Notes:  This little fic touches on surviving torture and PTSD survival.  If you're struggling with that sort of thing, be kind to yourself and find another ficlet to cuddle up with.  It isn't graphic at all, but I wanted to put out the warning.

Thanks!Still finding my way through the 007-verse.  Hope you enjoy the little journey. :)

“Miss Moneypenny,” M said, voice quiet but firm as he flipped through the stack of documents in his hand.  “I’m afraid something has come up and I won’t be able to meet with the department heads for the breakfast meeting tomorrow. I believe I have an opening Thursday afternoon, if you’d be kind enough to see to it.”

Nimble fingers were already checking the computer and sending out his apologies.  Not that he needed to apologize, but it was the done thing. “Yes, sir.  The department heads have been notified, and if any of them have conflicts…” He raised an eyebrow and Moneypenny ground to a halt.  “Yes, sir.  I will make sure they know that this takes priority. Is there anything else?”

M finished flipping through the papers in his hand, pulled a pen out and scribbled his initial on a few lines and passed them across the mahogany surface.  “No thank you, Moneypenny.  That will be all for now.”

He sighed as he passed back into his office and closed the door. Another bullet dodged.

***

Where was the chili oil?

“You do understand, M, that these agents of yours don’t actually have a license to run roughshod over the law.  They have to answer to someone.”

And that someone will never be you.  As M, his was the last word when it came to his agents and he wasn’t about to pass them over to some bean counter who had never sacrificed a day in his life for Queen and country.

He raised a finger to get the attention of their server.  “Chili oil, please.”

The server gave a tiny bow and turned with an, “Of course, sir.” before disappearing into the back of the restaurant. Across the white linen tablecloth, the MP he was ignoring began to notice that he was being ignored.

“I say, surely you realize…”

M cut him off with a raised finger.  “Surely you realize that what my agents do, or do not do, is my purview, and ultimately, mine alone. The legality of their actions is defined much more stringently than the actions of MPs, such as yourself, or even the PM herself. If you have a problem with something that one of my people has done, you are by all means welcome to lodge a complaint through the proper channels. Oh good, here it is—” He looked up at the server carrying the small container of chili oil with a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

The server dissolved in the way that excellent servants did—only visible when needed, and never when not—and he began to douse the white fish he’d been served liberally, and the man across the table raised both eyebrows in astonishment.

“You’re not going to eat that?” The MP cleared his throat and lowered his voice, apparently a little embarrassed to have been so caught off guard as to blurt something out like that.

“You’d be surprised,” was all M replied, finally raising his fork to his mouth and tucking into his luncheon with satisfaction.

***

“Santa Baby, slip the sable under the tree, for me…” 004 serenaded the office party with his best torch singer’s voice, wiggling a feather boa at anyone who got close enough for him to tease, “I’ve been an awful good girl, Santa Baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight.”

“Been just awful, you mean,” another voice piped up from the back of the room, clear as a bell. “How many explosions on your tally, so far? If I remember correctly, two more and you’ll pass 006.”  Q’s face was pink from a little too much holiday cheer, but he still had Q-Branch under control.  Thankfully. His minions got stroppy quickly if things went wrong, but Q always seemed to know how to calm them.

Like Hagrid and his pets. Now wasn’t that a picture?

M pushed his way further into the room and paused where everyone could see him.  Startling a group studded with 00 agents was never a good idea.

“Happy Christmas to you all!” He smiled as broadly as was acceptable for a member of upper management and raised his laden arms.  “Father Christmas was busy, so I told him I’d drop this lot off.”

Several of the Q-Branch staffers skittered forward and helped him set down the gifts he’d brought, his smile a little less forced as he watched them happily digging through of the packages. He didn’t go in for the departmental Secret Santa gift exchanges—he always thought it ironic that spies loved spying on each other under the auspices of figuring out the perfect gift—but he was no Scrooge, and he appreciated his people.  They sacrificed more than most would ever be aware of, and even though they chose the life, that didn’t make their sacrifices any less important.

“Just the man we were hoping to see,” came a voice from the corner.  007 was lounging against the corner of a desk, looking for all the world like Q Branch had been tailored to fit him like one of his damned suits.  He waved a tumbler of what was probably very good scotch at Q, and the younger man nodded.

“Masters,” he said, “would you pop into my office and grab the box on the corner of my desk?  It should have a tag on it.”

The young blond fellow hopped up, disappearing into Q’s office for a moment and returning with an enormous basket with a red bow and an index card with a big green M on it.

“This is for you, I guess, sir,” he said, handing M the basket with a nod and a smile before plopping back at his desk and resuming his conversation.  

M looked down into the basket expecting his typical bottle of rum, if they’d realized that was his preference, or whiskey if they were still shopping for the old M.  Not that he minded.  Some nights, whatever was available was fine.

That wasn’t the case, though. Instead of alcohol—or, actually in addition to alcohol, because there was indeed a pair of bottles of Pusser’s in the bottom—but on top, there was… well, there was so much it was almost overwhelming.

He recognized hot British mustard, and a jar of Calabrian pepper sauce.  There was Szechuan chili oil, and hot pickled giardiniera.  There was even a bright red bottle of something called Dave’s Insanity Sauce.  

He picked the last up out of the basket and looked at the little tag on it.  From: Felix Leiter—with the CIA’s apologies to your stomach.

All the bottles had tags. Most were from 00’s.  One, with a handwritten label, was from Moneypenny. There was even a box of spicy chili laced chocolates with a tag that said, “Life isn’t worth living without chocolate –Happy Christmas from Q-Branch.”

He looked up and noticed the three best, or worst, of his charges had crossed the space to stand before him.

Bond swallowed a mouthful of scotch and nodded to the chaotic pile of condiments. “Alec tried to sneak in a salt-shaker full of gunpowder—he tried it one very memorable weekend in Siberia—but we convinced him that we didn’t actually want to poison you.”

M nodded. “I appreciate that.  Truly.”

Moneypenny grinned.  “One of those is my grandmother’s spicy pickapeppa sauce, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Q use it as a degreaser in the lab, so be warned.”

Q shuddered.  “That stuff should be weaponized.  Wait.  I could….”

“Q!” Moneypenny punched him lightly in the shoulder and they shared a grin.

M stared at the little group, and then realized the other 00’s were watching them from their spots around the room.

Bond raised a shoulder. “We hope you don’t mind, but it was important to us,” he nodded, “to all of us, that we do this first Christmas right. We know we aren’t the most welcoming bunch.”

Q snorted into his drink, and 007 threw him a dry look.  “Most of us had a love/hate relationship with your predecessor, and unfortunately you got the brunt of it after Skyfall.”

M shifted the basket in his hands, trying to think of what to say.  He couldn’t think of anything.

Moneypenny took pity on him. “After a month and a half of rescheduling breakfast meetings, it became pretty obvious that they were never going to work for some reason.”

Q nodded. “I, for one, am very grateful for that fact—who wants to deal with bureaucracy before they’ve even had their tea—but, still.  Knowing that it was a thing, didn’t explain what it was, or why.”

007 met his eye and they shared a look of understanding.  “It wasn’t hard for the agents to figure out.  You aren’t one of us now, but you were once—or at least close enough for government work.” They all laughed at that, and Bond went on. “All the 00’s have things we avoid.  I swear Alec would shoot someone if they tried to feed him borscht.”  He looked grim. “Six weeks of eating nothing but rotten beets, and those rarely…” he didn’t say anymore.  He didn’t need to.

Mallory had spent three brutal months in the hands of the IRA, and they’d left their mark.  Or marks.  He’d found that the scars could be explained away, but the horror he felt at the scent of gluey oats, or the panic he felt at the smell of over-boiled cabbage and spoiled potatoes.  He’d been starved enough to eat anything, and then sick as a dog when he did.  It changed a man.

He looked around the room and felt closer to the 00’s than he ever had.  It changed all of them.

Q raised his glass, “So, we decided that this year our Christmas mission was to make sure that, you, as our new M—who is now stuck with us, for better or for worse—never ran out of what it takes for you to do the job. Whatever it happened to be. Even,” he picked up a cut glass jar full of candy and tilted it so he could read the label, “habanero flavored jellybeans.”

M nodded once, firmly, and shifted the weight of his present a little awkwardly, as yet unable to find his tongue.  Luckily, Moneypenny had no such problem.

“Now,” she reached in with a grin and grabbed the Pusser’s before heading back towards the rest of the partygoers. “Who’s going to let me show you how to make a proper Painkiller? Anyone?”

Q smiled and raised his glass in a little toast before sidling away, just leaving M and Bond.

“Happy Christmas,” Bond paused. “M.”

He looked at the other man and recognized the compliment in the use of his title.

“Happy Christmas yourself, 007.  And thank you.”

#007 Fest 2019 #bamf m #angst and fluff #MI6 family

[futuristicallygayduck]

That’s Us: Chapter Two

Chapter Two: That You’ll Be Left With Nothing, Is A Cold Certainty

Word count: 6,369 

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Pre-epilogue: translation of song-lyrics | Epilogue

To read on AO3 click here.

Trigger warnings: A whole lot of angst and fighting this chapter. Not very detailed, but we see a bit of Baz’s sacrificial side, which toes the line towards suicidal? So, that might be triggering. Again, I cannot judge this very well, so please beware if you’re easily triggered.

After

Simon

I shouldn’t be here. Why did I ever think this was a good idea? Why did I ever think coming back to Watford wouldn’t tear me apart? I guess I’ve never been the best decision-maker.

I haven’t seen anyone I know yet. Or well, not anyone that I know very well. I saw Niall somewhere in the halls, but he just averted his eyes and pretended I wasn’t there. I guess that has been the reaction of most students I saw. They don’t know what to do with me anymore. What do you do with someone who lost their magic on a school for magic?

I skipped past Rhys and Gareth’s room as fast as I could. I couldn’t face them. I have no idea where Agatha is, so I haven’t seen her either. Penny told me she’d kind of disappeared off the face of the earth. She’d sent one text telling us not to worry about her and a picture of a dog neither of us had ever seen before.

I haven’t seen Penny yet either, but that’s okay. She has arranged to come home every weekend. Any sane headmaster would have granted her the permission to go home during the weekend after everything that had happened, but her mother now being the headmaster also definitely helped with that arrangement.

She offered to help me, when I told her I wanted to go back to Watford myself. I considered taking her up on her offer for a moment. I knew it would be one of the hardest moments in my life and her presence always helped to ground me. In the end, though, I denied her help. This is something I need to do on my own. I need to finish this chapter of my life on my own.

Or maybe not completely on my own.

I started my time here with Baz and I never got the chance to finish it with him. So maybe officially I’m here to get the rest of my stuff before the end of the school year. But maybe I’m really just here to talk to Baz. I’m not sure I know how to, though. We’ve been enemies for almost eight years. We never actually talked, we just yelled at each other. The last time we were in this room, we tried. Talking, that is. In the end, it still turned into yelling and pushing and… almost confessing. At least, I think that’s what was happening. I figure that by now I can kind of imagine the reasons Baz thinks he’ll always lose. At least, some of them.

There are still so many things left unsaid. Maybe we’ll never say them, but I owe him something more. More than… I don’t know. Just… more. Because that’s what I want from him, too. More.

So here I am sitting at the end of my old bed. I haven’t packed anything yet. I can’t. I have just been staring at the wall, tuning all my thoughts out.

Magic is something that, when you possess it, fills all your senses constantly. You don’t even consciously realise that, until it’s gone. When you lose your magic, you stop smelling it. You stop seeing it. You stop feeling it. You stop tasting it. It’s easy to ignore when I’m out for a walk. I tend to go just anywhere that isn’t home. Penny’s home. They took me in after the final battle, but it’s been killing me. Knowing that there is magic in the room, but that I just can’t register it in any way.

At Watford, it’s even worse. This was the place I returned to after each endless summer to finally feel the magic all around me again. The magic I pretended didn’t exist during those summers. Just so that I wouldn’t miss it that much. This was the place where the realness of magic came back to life. It burst through the walls. It sizzled in the air. I always loved that feeling.

Now there’s nothing. I can’t smell it. I can’t see it. I can’t feel it. I can’t taste it.

So, I just sit there at the end of my bed, staring at the wall. And I try to tune all my thoughts down. I try to put every fibre of my (admittedly shitty) concentration on my senses. On trying to smell, see, feel, taste the magic that must be in the air. I try to grasp at the smallest signs of magic, but I know that it’s just my mind playing tricks with me. I know that it’s my mind presenting me memories of what it used to smell, look, feel, look, taste like. I spent so many years in this room with Baz that I know that I have every detail of his magic memorised and at moments like this the senses feel tangible. But I know that it’s just my mind shoving in my face what I can never truly experience again.

And that is how I sit there at the end of my bed. Staring at the wall, trying to make the distinction between reality and a reflection of a memory.

It’s a quiet cough that rips me out of my frozen state.

I look up and suddenly all my senses come back to me. Not the ones that used to register magic, but the ones that smell the cedar and bergamot in the air. The ones that see the familiar grey eyes and pitch black locks. The ones that feel my pulse quicken. The ones that taste his name on my tongue.

“Baz.”

During

Baz

We’re holding back.

I had been right all along. This was a war that was going to be fought by Snow and me. Sure, there was plenty of fighting going on around us. Plenty of victims have fallen. However, you could feel the unspoken rule that no one was allowed to touch us but us. At least… for now.

Because we’re holding back.

And the longer we’re holding back the higher the pressure is getting. My father keeps yelling at me in between casting spells and I can see the Mage passionately arguing with Simon.

I don’t know why Snow is holding back. I can’t imagine he would pass up this opportunity to finally end me. I think I clearly gave a sign that I wouldn’t be fighting back. Not really, at least.

It’s not just that I can’t kill him because I love him too much. In this war, everybody seems to have forgotten all about the Insidious Humdrum. If I kill Snow today, that would mean we wouldn’t have a Chosen One to beat the Humdrum anymore.

Plenty of mages have stopped believing in him as the one to save us all and I can’t really blame them; he is still unable to perform the simplest spells and has no control whatsoever in really just anything he does. How could he be the one to save us from the biggest threat our world has yet faced?

Yet I can’t help but believe that he has to be the one to save us. Why else would he have so much power? And maybe there’s a bit of gut feeling too. Or maybe that’s just my infatuated self making excuses as to not just kill him here on the spot. But I know I believe he is the only one who can beat the Humdrum.

So, I’m holding back.

Simon

I’m holding back.

And the Mage is not liking it one bit. He just keeps yelling and yelling at me to fight harder. To just kill Baz.

It used to sound so easy. Just kill the guy who has been tormenting you for the past seven and a half years. Just kill the guy who is most definitely a vampire and has probably been out to eat you for the past seven and a half years. Just kill the guy with whom you shared a room and, in your own way, a life for the past seven and a half years.

“Just kill him.”

I can’t. I don’t why I can’t, really. Maybe because of what he said last night or maybe because of what happened after. Maybe because this entire fight seems pointless in the face of the Humdrum. Or maybe it’s because I really don’t hate Baz that much. Okay, no, I do hate him. Just not enough to just kill him.

So, I’m holding back.

But Baz is holding back too and I don’t know why. It’s like he’s trying to say he’s not going to fight back. Not really, at least. And I wonder whether he means that he will just let himself be killed or whether he refuses to be just a weapon in someone else’s war.

“Simon, c’mon! You know the spells, so use them!”

Or maybe he’s just mocking me. Mocking me and my sad ending and how I won’t even put up a real fight (how I probably wouldn’t even be able to), so why should he. He could kill me with a simple flick of his wand but he’s just dragging it out so that the world can really see what an awful excuse for a Chosen One I really am.

“Simon, we need you to win this!”

I scan the rest of the battle from the corners or my eye. The Mage is right. The Mage’s Men are on the losing hand. They need me to finish this. I need to turn the tide. By just killing Baz. I return my focus on him.

“Just think about all the things he has done to you!”

I keep my focus on Baz while I let the Mage’s words flood in. I stop fighting them. I push just the slightest bit harder.

“Yes! Keep going, Simon. Just think about all those times he hurt you.”

I push a bit harder. Baz doesn’t push back.

“Think about the time he almost fed you to a chimera.”

I vaguely register that I’m surprised the Mage even remembered that. It’s not like he cared right after it actually happened. Then, I block the thought and push harder. Baz doesn’t push back.

“You remember that time he pushed you of the stairs, right?"

And I push harder. I notice more and more people pausing their fights to see this play out. To see me pushing harder and harder. And Baz… Baz giving up. Fight back, I try to tell him. I don’t know why.

I keep imagining him standing up to me. Putting up a real fight. Killing me, because he can. He is so much better than I am. I’m the one who smells like smoke, but he’ll always be the one on fire when he’s fighting. Not the real thing, because that would obviously kill him. No, his entire being seems to be flaming. His posture and the sharpened edges of his face filled with this endless determination to win. The grip on his wand deliberate and strong. Wild, but controlled.

His eyes are always the most powerful of all, though. When he’s fighting, they are so full of perseverance and confidence. I am going to win this battle, is all they seem to say. I’m pretty sure it’s the most frightening thing about him and has any enemy feel ready to start drafting their will.

Right now, there’s none of that. His posture is lousy. His movements lack their usual precision. The muscles in his face have been forced into a bored expression. It’s as if he is still completely unbothered by me stepping my game up. As if he couldn’t care less. At least, that’s what he’s obviously trying to make people think.

“Come on, Simon, you’re gaining ground. Just a little more.”

His eyes are what terrify me. Not because they carry the usual conviction of his inevitable victory, but because that’s what they lack. The only thing I can see in them is resignation. Resignation and a lifetime of sadness.

Fight back, I want to yell at him.

And suddenly I’m so angry at him for not fighting back and I don’t know why. I feel my magic rising through my skin, spreading all over me.

I push harder.

My hits get closer and closer to Baz. He doesn’t give ground, but he doesn’t rise his defence either, so every lick of flames that I send towards him gets a little bit closer before he manages to fend it off.

Fight back, I want to yell at him.

And my anger rises and rises as images flood my mind. All his sneers and his raised eyebrows. That time he pushed me off the stairs. The time he tried to feed me to a chimera.

Fight back, I want to yell at him.

And my anger rises as I remember all those times I was already at the bottom and he needed to just give me another kick. A snarky comment when I messed something up again. An evil smirk when I couldn’t find my words.

Fight back, I want to yell at him.

But what’s angered me the most is his complete control. He’d say the worst of things with the clearest face. He’d push me against a wall and I’d be shaking with anger, while his hands were perfectly still.

I think that’s what bothered me last night, but also gave me the confidence to push him further. I’d never seen him lose control that way. I’d never seen him so emotional. I’d never seen his body so beyond his command. I’d never seen him speak so honestly.

I’d never seen him so close to completely letting go. To completely losing control. I wanted him to. So badly. I didn’t know what it would mean or what would happen, but in that moment, he was so close to human. So close to me.

And I tried to pull at him. To give him that last nudge. To have him drop all his masks and show the truth. And just as I was this close to getting to him, he let go. Of me. And he regained all his control. His hands stopped trembling. His face pulled itself back into its usual bored and mean look. The only remainder of his outburst lay in his eyes. This sad look of resignation.

And this is what he carries with him now, too. This complete control in his body and face, mixed with the heart-breaking look in his eyes. And it makes me so mad. It makes me so mad that even in his desperation, in this decision to let himself be killed he still manages to have complete control. It makes me mad that his gaze tells me that this is not some kind of break down. This isn’t spontaneous. This is completely deliberate.

I’m mad because this is his decision. He has made the decision to let himself be killed. To give up his life for whatever reason. And my anger rises and rises at how little regard he has for himself. I feel my magic pushing at the edges of my skin at the thought of him thinking that him dying is excusable in any way.

He isn’t fighting back and I feel my magic spilling knowing he has given up on himself and his own worth in this world.

“FIGHT BACK!”, I yell.

I fire.

And I know that I went too far.

I stopped holding back.

Baz

“FIGHT BACK!”, Snow yells.

And I know this is it.

He stopped holding back.

It had been coming and I knew it. I don’t know what convinced him, probably The Mage, but he started pushing more and more.

My survival instinct told me to fight back, but I did the right thing. I showed him I won’t fight him. I won’t.

And now that I can see the string of flames he’s sent my way, I stand down.

I let my arms fall to my sides and let the flames come closer.

I stand down and hold his shocked gaze.

Because this is what I promised myself.

I promised myself this one thing:

to die looking into Simon’s eyes for one last time.

Simon

As a string of fire leaves my wand and nears Baz at an alarming rate, his eyes find mine.

For a second, I can do nothing but stare back at him. It’s like his eyes show me everything. They’re just as honest as a few seconds ago, but different all the same. Now, there is serenity in them. He has let go and doesn’t seem bothered by the flames getting closer to him. There is also focus. He is completely focussed on me. As if he is blocking every single thing around and inside him, just to keep his attention on me.

It’s as if he’s trying to tell me something. Just with this one look. He’s not planning on letting my gaze go until his point has gotten across and I don’t know why.

I focus on him and pull apart any and every emotion that I can find in his eyes. With each one I know that I’m getting closer and closer to the truth.

The moment I’ve shed all the layers and find the core, I realise that I’ve never wanted to do this. I’ve never wanted to kill Baz. Yes, I’ve been annoyed by him and I’ve wanted him gone for so many times. But nothing this permanent. Not like this. I need him. I can’t just kill him.

But in the seconds it has taken me to feel this, my spell has gotten closer to him. Four feet. Three feet. Two feet.

Inches.

“BAZ!”, I choke out as tears blur the vision of the flames closing in on him.

I try to pull everything back. I know it’s an act of panic and that it won’t work. I try anyway. I imagine the fire being a thread that I can pull back. And I pull and pull and pull as the thread seems to spill through my fingers. Away from me.

And just as I think that it’s over. Just as I think that I’ve lost all control and that my ‘enemy’ will go up in flames, there’s an explosion of light.

And I know that it’s over.

I know now that, apparently, vampires burning up give this enormous explosion of light.

I know that this is it and I let myself fall to my knees.

It’s over.

Baz

I see an explosion of light and I know that it’s over. Apparently, this is what happens when you set a vampire on fire. An unnecessary amount of light and then nothing. A bit of dust probably. Burned to the ground.

Except I don’t feel it.

I don’t feel flames eating away at my skin. I can see the light, but it doesn’t touch me. I don’t burn to the ground.

And when the light fades again, there is no dust. I’m still all flesh and bones. Sure, a few scratches, but nothing more.

And when the light fades again I can see Simon on the opposite side of the field. He has fallen to the ground. He looks completely defeated. Unscathed, but devastated. There are tears streaming down his face.

I remember him crying out my name and I wonder whether this is his doing. Whether he somehow retracted his spell. Whether he stopped it. Whether he saved me. Then he looks up and he sees me alive and well and then suddenly everything seems to be happening at the same time.

Simon looks up and all the tension seems to leave his body. He slumps even further to the ground, but it’s in a relieved way, rather than defeated. He holds my gaze as he mouths my name and I let myself smile at him.

For a moment, I have this vision of us deciding not to fight and stopping the war. Of ending it right here and now.

I start walking towards him. I want to pick him up off the ground. I want to shake his hand and decide right here and now that we are done fighting other people’s wars.

I start walking towards him, when halfway through The Mage, who has been standing merely a few meters away from Simon all this time, comes forward to meet me.

He raises his wand and fires.

I fight back.

Simon

The Mage is fighting Baz and he is losing. Any fire that Baz missed when he was battling me he is putting into the fight now. For once, it’s his anger that is tangible in the air. I want to tell him to not kill The Mage, but I realise that that would mean that The Mage would kill him and I don’t know what to feel anymore.

There’s spells flying around everywhere and if people had been paying attention to me and Baz before, now the other mages have completely stopped fighting their own battles to watch the scene unfold.

I get distracted for a second as I feel a hand on my arm.

Penny has crouched next to me and is checking in on me. Relief floods me. She’s alive. She’s bleeding and sweaty and she looks absolutely exhausted, but she’s alive. I tug on her arm and we hold each other as we watch Baz and The Mage.

It’s all I can do. I wouldn’t be able to choose between either of them. This is their battle and I hold on to Penny, wanting to hide my face in her hair so I won’t have to watch whatever tragedy is about to happen, but not being able to tear my eyes away.

As the Mage keeps on losing ground he starts yelling at me.

“Simon, you’ve got to help me!”

While he keeps fending Baz off, he shuffles closer to me, reaching his hand towards me. I look up at him in confusion.

“Give me your magic!”

I blink up at him. What does he mean? I can’t just give my magic away. I don’t even know how to control it myself. How would I be able to give it to someone else to deal with?

“What do you m-“

“Just give me your hand and push, Simon, now!”

“But, Sir, I might hurt you. I don’t even kn-“

“Just do it, Simon!”

“But-“

“DO IT!”

My body responds automatically and I reach out my hand, but just before I can grab The Mage’s hand Penelope drags me back.

“Don’t, Simon.”

“I don't understand. What’s happening, Penny?”

“I don’t know, but… there’s something that’s been bothering about your magic…”

“What do you mean?”

“Well… I’ve been thinking about why the Humdrum looks like you…”

She’s not making any sense to me and I shoot her a confused look as I feel The Mage pulling on my arm. The look on his face is manic.

“Come on, Simon! Give me your magic.”

“I don’t know how!”

Penny tugs my arm again and it’s like I’m a bone that two dogs are fighting over. Luckily, I see Baz has notched his attacks up a bit again, distracting The Mage from me to protect himself, so I can turn my attention back to what Penelope is trying to tell me.

“Listen, Simon,”, She almost whispers, “I think you are the one creating the holes.”

It’s like the world starts to fade as her words keep flooding my mind.

“I don’t know how your magic works, but my father has been doing a lot of research after the holes with data of appearances and all. It seems that all of them have appeared at the same time or right after you used a lot of magic or blew completely up.”

It makes so much sense, but none at all at the same time. I’m supposed to beat the Humdrum, not be him.

“Listen, Simon, I don’t know how your magic works. If the Mage thinks you can somehow give him your magic, that might be true. I don’t know how he knows that or if it is actually true. But you shouldn’t toy with it. Don’t do it.”

And everything is too overwhelming. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Baz doesn’t seem like my enemy anymore. I guess he never was. Maybe I’ve been the enemy all this time. I’ve been destroying the World of Mages all this time.

All the while Baz and The Mage keep battling and I don’t know what to do. If I help The Mage and give him my magic somehow, he would kill Baz and I might create another hole. If I don’t do anything Baz will win. The Mage keeps yelling at me to help him, Penny keeps trying to talk to me (I’m not listening anymore), the other mages keep watching. I feel my magic itching and burning and boiling. I’m losing control.

That’s when he appears.

A little boy with a red ball. A little boy that looks just like me with a wicked smile on his face.

“Hello, Simon.”

At the sound of his voice The Mage and Baz lower their wands. Some of the mages immediately take to running away. Some take a few steps back. Some are completely frozen in place.

I try to find the right words to say. I don’t even know what I’m meant to do now. I have so many questions. About my role in this all this and the how and why.

“Wh-what are you?”, is all that I manage.

The face of my younger self smirks back at me.

“I’m what’s left when you are done.”

He has answered this before, but now I hear Penny’s theory through them and I know that Penny is right. This is what he meant with that answer all this time. I explode and that’s when he expands. I explode and that’s when the holes appear, and expand. Next to me, I feel Penny realise that she is right too. She tugs on my arm.

“Simon, you cannot fight back. Holes only want to grow. If you attack him, you’ll feed him.”

The Humdrum flicks her a look before focussing back on me.

“She’s a clever one.”, he smirks.

He’s got me in a corner. If I attack him in any way, he’ll get more and more powerful. But who’s to say what would happen if I didn’t do anything. Will he attack us? I can’t protect any of us with my magic and no one is strong enough to defeat the Humdrum.

Would even calling my sword take too much magic?

My hand flies to my belt, where the sword would appear if I’d call for it, but the Humdrum only giggles.

“Nuh-uh. I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

That’s when The Mage cuts in again. He keeps demanding me to attack the Humdrum and all I can do is mutter ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’ and he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand, he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand that if I were to attack I could suck all magic out of the atmosphere. If I were to attack it wouldn’t be me who would win.

The words are frozen in my throat and I can’t explain but he keeps on yelling at me and the Humdrum keeps on smirking at me and Penny keeps her hands on my arm to stop me from doing anything, even though she doesn’t have to. I notice Baz moving to stand more to our side. Not between me and the Humdrum, but close enough to cut in if necessary and I want to tell him to get the hell out and save himself, because I can’t protect him anymore. I can’t protect anyone anymore.

The Mage keeps yelling at me to do something and once he realises that I won’t do anything he goes back to demanding I give him my magic so that he can save the World of Mages. I can’t explain to him that I can’t and he keeps demanding and demanding.

Because, he says, he has finally found a way to control my magic. He has finally found a way to save the World of Mages. Because, I was too weak. I wasn’t the right vessel for this kind of power. Because, I can’t handle it. He can. If I give him my magic. If I just take his hand and push.

That’s when it hits me.

Well, at least I hope it’s right. I hope it works. It’s really just a shot in the dark, but I know that it’s the only option I can think of that hopefully wouldn’t make things worse. Hopefully.

I shake Penny off and crouch forward. I can see Baz from the corner of my eye taking a step forward as if he wants to intervene. Trust me, I want to tell him and it almost seems as if he heard it, because he doesn’t come any closer.

Once I’m close enough to the Humdrum, I grab his shoulders and look in the eyes that are so much like mine. His smirk has grown into a full evil grin as he registers my desperation.

“I’m sorry.” I whisper.

I push.

Penelope

At first, the Humdrum looks confused, but then this understanding look settles on his face and, weirdly enough, so, so much peace. The grin on his face disappears and he nods at Simon. I can’t see Simon’s face, but he seems to get the encouragement and keeps doing whatever it is that he is doing.

The Mage is trying to tear the two of them apart, but his hands cannot seem to get a hold on the Humdrum, until his hands even fall right through him. Whatever it is that is happening, it’s happening faster and faster now. I can feel it in the air. At first, there was this strain in the air. This incredible power that was being pushed and pulled. Now the air just seems to fill up.

And the Insidious Humdrum fades more and more and more.

And then it’s Simon that The Mage is clutching. He is shaking him, trying to get Simon to look at him, but Simon is frozen in place, completely grounded and focused. A final burst shoots through the air and then Simon falls to the ground and doesn’t get up.

“What have you done?”, The Mage keeps on shouting as he grabs at Simon, beats him.

I get up to throw the Mage off, but Baz beats me to it. He swings his arms around the Mage’s chest, hurling him off Simon.

For a second, it looks as if Baz is going to bite, but Simon’s “NO” is enough for him to stop. The Mage throws him off and launches himself back at Simon. He’s pointing his wand at Simon’s chest and I know I have to do something.

“Give it to me!”, The Mage keeps poking and beating at Simon, but by now Simon has started crying and he keeps on repeating the same thing. I can feel his despair seeping through my bones.

“It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone.”

That only makes the Mage angrier and angrier. Baz has mixed himself into the fight again and keeps on pulling at the Mage to get him off Simon.

“Stop!” Simon cries, “It’s over. It’s gone. Please, just stop!”

No one is listening to him. No one is paying attention to his words. The Mage is completely blinded by his greed and Baz is completely focussed on trying to get the Mage away. Most of the other Mages fled the scene as soon as the Humdrum appeared and the rest is frozen to their spots.

Simon is crying for everything to stop and nobody is listening to him. And they should be listening to him. That is why I raise my ring hand and speak with a loud and clear voice:

“Simon Says”

Simon’s next words are cried out, drenched in magic.

“Stop it, stop hurting me!”

Baz

The Mage’s body goes limp in my arms and in a reflex, I let him fall to the ground. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know whether he is dead or whether he is just knocked out and will come around later. I just know that I need to make sure that Simon is okay.

So, I let go off the Mage and crouch over to where Simon is on the ground and I try to get him to look at me. He is still making himself as small as possible, probably expecting more hits and more yelling and more pain. I need to know that he is alright. That he is save and alive.

I hold his shoulder with one hand and lift his chin with the other. When he looks up I can see this millisecond of relief washing over him, but then he looks just a bit to the side and sees the Mage lying on the ground. Who I see, as I follow Simon’s gaze, is lifeless.

“What have I done?” He whispers, panicking. “I killed him. I killed the Mage.”

And I feel him slipping through my fingers as he falls back to the ground, weeping.

“I killed the Mage. What did I do? I didn’t mean to kill him.”

He keeps on mumbling and crying and panicking and I don’t know what to do. I hesitatingly put my hand on his shoulder and he turns and clutches to me, crying into my chest. I know I shouldn’t react this way, but my heart can’t help but jump just the slightest as I rub circles into his back.

Over his shoulder I can see Bunce watching us, frozen to her place. With my eyes, I beckon her closer. He needs her. Thankfully, this is all she needs to get moving and soon she is beside us on the ground, holding onto Simon for dear life as he keeps on mumbling and crying.

Just as Simon seems to calm down just the slightest and his breathing has evened out, this protective sphere that Bunce and I created is interrupted.

“Basilton,” I hear my father’s voice say, “Step aside.”

Penelope

Over Baz’s shoulder I see his father standing a couple of feet away from us. Baz freezes at hearing his voice and I can feel my heartrate picking up again. This is not good.

I want to tell Baz to stay here, but he softly takes Simon’s arms, that are wrapped around his chest, and pulls him off him, before guiding Simon to hold onto me. Then he rises to his feet, but instead of stepping aside or joining his father, he stays right in front of us, right in the line of fire.

His voice is cold and controlled when he speaks.

“Why, father?”

“Because, we have to finish this war, Basilton.”, his father’s voice is drenched with anger in a stark contrast with Baz’s as he keeps his voice void of emotion.

“The Mage is dead, father, you have already won the war.”

“That boy is the Mage’s Heir. This war is not over.”

“He is just a boy.”

“He is the Insidious Humdrum.”

“He just defeated the Insidious Humdrum.”

“He will take over if we don’t kill him now.”

“You’ll first have to kill me.”

Mr. Grimm raises his wand.

“I know plenty spells to knock you out without killing you and you know it,” he says. “Don’t try me.”

That’s when Baz raises his hand, wandless. With a flick of his fingers a burst of flames erupts in the palm of his hand. He brings his other hand close to it. From a distance, it probably just looks like he is cupping the flame that he could use to attack his father. From here, I can see Baz inching his own thumb closer to the flame. From here, I can see that this is a different kind of threat.

“Don’t. Try. Me.”

Baz

My words are venomous and I see my father’s face turns bleaker than my skin has ever been. For a second, I see him hesitate. I see him run the possibility of me bluffing through his mind. I can almost hear him think that in no way a Pitch would give up their life for anyone.

But I’m highly flammable and as soon as my father meets my eyes I can see him realising what I already know. I will let the flames catch me, if that is what it takes to stop him. My father takes one step closer, but his gaze is no longer determined, but hesitating. I answer him by turning my hand a bit to shift the fire closer to my other hand.

“Baz,” I hear Simon choke out behind me, voice raw from the tears, “Don’t.”

I want to turn around and take him back into my arms, but I can’t. I have to finish this.

My father has lowered his wand, but I won’t put out the flames until this is all truly over.

“Listen, father, you are going to go home. The Mage is dead; you won the war. Congratulations. Go home. The Coven will convene and figure out what to do next. With the World of Mages, with Watford and with Simon Snow.”

He huffs, but when I let the fire in my palm light up a bit more he turns around and stomps away. Apparently, he really does care more about keeping my mother’s legacy alive than killing Simon.

As he leaves the field, he orders the remaining members of The Old Families to follow him, probably promising them a celebration or whatever. A few of them remain on the field, though. One of whom is, of course, Mrs. Bunce.

Once my father is out of sight, I let the flames die and turn to Mrs. Bunce. This time, when I speak, all I can hear in my voice is exhaustion.

“I think Simon and Penelope could do with a warm bed and some food.”

Thank you for reading the second chapter of That’s Us! I really hope you enjoyed it. And I really hope you’re all mentally giving Baz, Simon and Penny really big hugs, because they need them.

Please let me know what you thought :)

Thank you to everyone who left a reaction to the previous chapter. You’re just too sweet, and definitely a great motivation to keep writing and posting. Thank you.

#Snowbaz fanfiction #Snowbaz #Carry on fanfiction #carry on #my writings #my writings: that's us #Aaaah it's the second chapter #i hope you enjoyed #ive never written fighting scenes so this was hard as hell #but im actually quite happy with this chapter #please let me know what you thought! #And thank you to everyone who has let me know so far #youre all absolute angels #thank you

[initforthelongrun2019]

Another Lockdown, Another Challenge

During Lockdown V1, I decided I would set myself a challenge; to run 30km on my teeny tiny rooftop. I didn’t write about this, because it was extremely uneventful and I don’t want to relive those painful memories.

For Lockdown V2 I wanted to set myself another running challenge, one which was a little more exciting this time, so I took it upon myself to complete the David Goggins 4/4/48 challenge. For those of you who don’t know, David Goggins is an ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist and triathlete. He was also a United States Navy SEAL; his list of achievements and accolades goes on.

In order to complete the 4/4/48 challenge, you must run four miles every four hours, for 48 hours. In theory, this sounds pretty simple; each run is a mere 4 miles (or 6.5km); nothing compared to the distances I was running last year. But like with most races or challenges I do, I knew that I shouldn’t underestimate quite how difficult this could be.

I started the challenge at 2pm on Thursday. Prior to this, I woke up at my normal time and swam for 30 minutes, followed by one hour of Pilates later in the day. This is not too different to my usual routine, other than the fact I would normally do a more active workout first thing in the morning. I had lunch at my normal time of 1pm, and set out to do the challenge just one hour later. A summary of each of the 12 runs can be found below, but note that as I got more tired, my memory started to fade. Initially I wrote notes after every run, but at around run number 7, I kind of gave up on everything!

Run #1 Thursday 13 August, 14:00 Distance: 6.52km Pace 5:46/km Time: 37m 40s

I felt a lot of pressure with this run, not because I was worried about the challenge, or the distance, but because I had to get back in time for a virtual event I was doing at work at 3pm that day! So I set off at a quick pace, knowing I needed to leave enough time to shower when I got home. I felt strong, although my stomach felt a little off; eating at 1pm was far too late and, on reflection, I should have had my lunch much earlier. All was well, and I was even happier when I saw my boyfriend Gareth, ride up on his motorbike. I thought he was coming to cheer me on; turns out our dog had run away – possibly running after me – and he couldn’t find her. All thoughts of the challenge went out of my head and I ran off down one of the side roads in an attempt to try and find her. Luckily, all was well and he managed to locate her before I did, and so I carried on with my challenge. But this threw me off a little, as I had planned to run 3.2km in one direction and come back the same way so that I didn’t have to keep checking distance; after this I just ended up running around in circles and everything felt a little chaotic. Not the best start. After the run I came home, had a smoothie and a protein bar, and carried on with work, before my next run in just over three hours’ time.

Run #2 Thursday 13 August, 18:00 Distance: 6.57km Pace: 5.51/km Time: 38m 24s

This run was relatively easy, and relatively uneventful. I did a different route to the first one; I hadn’t actually mapped out any routes prior to this which was probably a mistake, as I had to keep checking my distance on my phone. Looking back, if I were to do this challenge again, I would set out some clear 6.5km routes beforehand; enough to keep me interested by having the option to do different routes, but which would allow me to be able to concentrate on the run itself, rather than always looking at the distance. Those of you who know me will know that I don’t run with a watch (I tried for a brief period of time but soon sacked it off), so I constantly have to pull my phone out of my pocket to check my Strava, which gets a little tedious. As soon as I came home I jumped in the pool (which proved to be a life saver throughout this challenge), and had a sandwich with another protein bar – and some peanuts for extra energy. My legs were feeling stiff already; I was surprised they were feeling so achey so soon, but I hadn’t really rested prior to the challenge, and I didn’t have much time to stretch after the first run. Luckily after the second run I had a little more time so I prepared my clothes for the 10pm and 2am runs, in an attempt to make those late night and early morning runs as smooth as possible. I also rinsed off my clothes so that I could wear them again at some point during the challenge, but I’ll be honest; this didn’t last very long and more often than not I was running in very sweaty clothes. Nice.

Run #3 Thursday 13 August, 22:00 Distance: 6.51km Pace: 6.06/km Time: 39m 40s

Gareth joined me for my 10pm run, as I was a little worried about running in the dark alone. We ran straight up and down the highway (the same route I intended to take during the first run), which was a little boring, but it meant that we could easily keep track of the distance and, more importantly, it was one of the few places which was well lit at that time of night. I’ve always been a morning runner and I don’t really enjoy running at night, but it was nice to have the company and, it was also nice to be able to run with my mask under my chin and to not get any disapproving stares from passers-by. As all of my trail gear is still stuck in Hanoi, so I had to improvise and purchase a torch; the only one I could find was some large industrial sized one, but it helped, as there were a few places along the way where it would have been too dark to run without one. I came home, jumped in the pool, dried off and climbed straight into bed.

Run #4 Friday 14th August, 02:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 7.24/km Time: 48m 11s

This was the run I was dreading the most. I’m not sure if I managed to sleep, my legs felt achey and I was worried I wouldn’t wake up to my alarm; I had a similar feeling to when you have to leave early to catch a flight at the airport! I had decided to run within the grounds of my apartment block, as I didn’t really want to run alone in the dark at that time of the morning. Also, as we are on lockdown, I thought I might look a little suspicious heading out at that time in the morning, so I took myself and my massive torch over to a small road just opposite my apartment, and set off running up, and down… and up…. and down… The only good thing about this run was the fact that I didn’t have to wear a mask. I came home, showered, drank lots of water and soy milk, and climbed straight back into bed.

Run #5 Friday 14th August, 06:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 7.42/km Time: 50m 30s

Surprisingly, this was the most difficult run so far. I thought that after getting the 10pm and 2am ones out of the way, I would be feeling positive about the day ahead. I thought wrong; I felt exhausted when I dragged myself out of bed at 5.30am, as once again I didn’t really sleep properly; a combination of achey legs and worries that I’d sleep through my alarm. I peeled on my running clothes and headed out but my legs didn’t seem to want to work, and shortly after starting my run, I had to stop to walk. The entire run consisted of run-walk-run-walk, but I figured it was better to keep moving rather than stop to rest. I also wasn’t so worried about my times here; during the previous two runs I wanted to finish quickly so I would have time to sleep, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep much during the day so it didn’t really matter. I did, however, want to complete all of my runs in under 60 mins, so I did always have this at the back of my mind. I was very happy when this run was over; again I jumped straight in the pool, and then treated myself to a coffee, a protein bar and a banana. I don’t normally eat breakfast and I wanted to try and continue with my fasting during the run, eating only between the hours of 1-9pm, but I soon realised this was a silly idea, and making sure I was fuelled and energised would help to get me through. I stretched in the pool and when I got out I foam rolled, which was exceptionally painful, but I knew it would be worth it. I did actually manage to sleep a little, just under an hour, but it was very on-and-off; not good quality sleep at all.

Run #6 Friday 14th August, 10:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 6.49/km Time: 44m 23s

After the disaster that was run number 5, I thought all of my runs would consist of running and walking, but again, I was proved wrong. Somehow I managed to find my legs again for this one and I ran the whole route. As I was running, I mentally split my runs up making them more manageable; the next two would be the afternoon ones which should be reasonable, then I had the dreaded night time ones, then, finally, the last two which should be relatively easy as the end would be in sight. I came home, jumped in the pool again, and then had a very early lunch of a vegan cheese sandwich, a protein bar and some soy milk. By this time I was feeling very hungry, but I knew that I shouldn’t snack too much as it would impact on my ability to run. Instead, I stretched, and went to bed again to try and catch up on sleep; I managed around 30 mins on and off. I was very happy that I’d reached the half way point and feeling very optimistic about the second half.

Run #7 Friday 14th August, 14:00 Distance: 6.54km Pace: 8.44/km Time: 57m 7s

I don’t remember much about this run, to be honest. Looking at the pace, I expect it was another one which consisted of lots of walking, as this was my longest one so far. I found it fascinating how the runs could affect you differently at various points throughout the day; I always expected my 2am one to be the slowest, but in fact, I had many more which took much longer to complete than that. I was definitely also very worried about the 2pm runs because of the weather; but for once, it was on my side, and Thursday’s cool weather followed through in to Friday. At this point in the challenge I realised that it was definitely reflective of what you experience when you are out on the trails; you find your energy at different points and sometimes, when you feel like you have no energy at all, you somehow find your legs and off you go.

Run #8 Friday 14th August, 18:00 Distance: 6.51km Pace: 7.00/km Time: 45m 36s

Gareth planned to run this one with me but then we had another pet related mishap; this time in the shape of a cat. We set off running together, and I warned him that I might not be able to run the entire thing, but we were stopped sooner than expected by a group of ladies who clearly didn’t understand the social distancing rules, and wanted us to take photos of them on their bicycles. I carried on running and let Gareth catch up; until we came across a lady who was trying to rescue some orphaned kittens nearby the river. Gareth stopped to help but I kept on running; I felt terrible but I hoped that Gareth would explain my reasons why. I managed to run the entire route; the same as my 6pm run the previous day; albeit at a much slower pace. When I got home, it was time for dinner. Another cheese sandwich, with a protein bar. Again, I was tempted to overeat due to a combination of boredom and lack of energy, but I resisted and instead, went to bed, where I didn’t sleep, but at least I was out of the vicinity of the fridge.

Run #9 Friday 14th August, 22:00 Distance: 6.51km Pace: 8.51/km Time: 57m 39s

I was DREADING this run; I was sore, I was tired and I was irritable. Gareth joined me again and we ran the same route as the night before, albeit at a much slower pace. We began with power walking and I set myself goals along the way; for example, I told myself I would start running when I got to the next lamppost and then start walking again at the next visible landmark. It gave me something to focus on; something to aim for, and it definitely helped. All the way through the run I was craving things I couldn’t have; particularly a can of full fat coke. I never ever drink full fat beverages, only when I’m running do I crave this type of sugary goodness. But unfortunately, Hoi An is a sleepy little town and things don’t stay open very late, especially during lockdown. So I had to make do with a blended watermelon juice when I got home, which was great, but not what I was looking for. I wasn’t even tempted by the pool this time; I peeled my clothes off, jumped in the shower and climbed straight in to bed.

Run #10 Saturday 15th August, 02:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 8.47/km Time: 57m 7s

I have nothing much to say about this one, other than it was horrible. It began by setting my alarm for 2.30am, rather than 1.30am, which shows just how tired I was. Luckily I’d asked Gareth to set his alarm too, and was startled when I heard it ringing out at 1.45am. I woke up feeling panicked and exhausted, but I still managed to peel myself out of bed. It took just under an hour but it felt like it lasted for a day.

Run #11 Saturday 15th August, 06:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 8.25/km Time: 54m 49s

The end was in sight, but this still didn’t give me much motivation to carry on. By this point I was feeling both mentally and physically drained, but I started to put myself back into a positive headspace and reminded myself that I had a coffee, a protein bar, and a dip in the pool to look forward to at the end of it. I did that throughout every run, I made sure I had something to look forward to at the end of it, so that it would motivate me to push through at a quicker pace. It worked, a little, but I was still glad when this one was over.

Run #12 Saturday 15th August, 10:00 Distance: 6.5km Pace: 8.50/km Time: 57m 27s

Run number 12! The final one! I did kind of want to end on a positive note, with a super-fast, strong run, but I knew the moment I set off my legs – and even my mind – weren’t having any of it. Gareth joined me and we mostly power-walked, but I was determined to run at least some of it, so I applied the same mentality as I did to the previous 10pm run, and set myself milestones for running. It seemed to take forever and I could’ve easily let it go on much longer, but I was determined that my final run of the challenge wouldn’t take me past the 60 minute mark, and it didn’t. The past two days of cool weather had subsided and by this time, the heat of the sun was brutal. I was extremely burnt after this race, and the pool was even more welcoming than it had been previously. I was so happy to finish; I was looking forward to a cocktail, I was looking forward to not having to wear a sports bra – or any bra for that matter – for the rest of the day, and in particular, I was looking forward to the fact that I didn’t have to run for the rest of the day!

[torentialtribute]

Wales Rugby World Cup preview: Warren Gatland’s side could not be in better shape

So & # 39; The Best Team in the World & # 39; go to the World Cup as 11-1 outsiders with many bookmakers.

It is not often a number 1 team – the Wales were short last month – they are so unknown by those who hoard the dosh.

But that is where we are with Wales in a strange position; well prepared, full of energy, momentum, talent, a consistent run of form, perhaps the best team they've ever had, with the best coach they've ever had … but are in the uncomfortable position of blinking on the radar she so desperate to fly under.

So will they shine or fade brightly in Japan ? Are they worth five? And how are you going to spend the £ 60 if Alun Wyn Jones cancels the Webb Ellis Cup on November 2?

All that food and more, Sportsmail judge Wales chances for the Rugby World Cup.

Warren Gatland wants to mark in style by leading Wales to their first World Cup triumph

How do they look at it? am

Australia, September 29 8.45 am

Fiji, October 9 10.45 am

Uruguay, October 13 9.15 am [1945903]

Really very well.

OK, they have just lost two major players to injuries – and they cannot afford to be without much more talisman – after No. 8 Taulupe Faletau (broken collarbone in training)) and Fly-half Gareth Anscombe (cruciate ligament knee injuries v England last month) were cruelly excluded.

But other than that, things are definitely rosy in the garden of Warren Gatland.

Essentially he is a big-game coach. He loves world cups and has planned this for years (yes, others do too, but nobody likes Gatland).

It was in 2016 when he decided that the old ways – don't mention the style of rugby named after him for God's sake – were not good enough, and expansion of thought and deed was needed.

Wales may have lost a series against the All Blacks 3-0 that year, and were also humiliated by the Chiefs, but it was the first step to expand their playing style.

The next phase was to add depth to play equipment. In 2015, a large number of terrible injuries – for Leigh Halfpenny, Rhys Webb, Jonathan Davies, Liam Williams, Cory Allen, Hallam Amos and Scott Williams – left Wales desperately short (despite defeating England with a scrum half on the wing) ).

.

KEY PLAYERS

[1945902] Alun Wyn Jones

The captain is amazed and will soon be the national cap winner with 130 hidden in his closet. Recently chosen as the & # 39; best player in the world & # 39 ;, he may not be, but he is a giant, evergreen legend that defies all logic with its amazing performances.

Jonathan Davies

Defensive captain, double lion and vice-skipper – the center has no equal in Welsh red. He goes, and the back line is everywhere. Pioneering ability coupled with the tendency to almost never make mistakes, it is vital.

Gatland would never allow that – the deepening of the players' pool was considered a goal. Flanker Aaron Wainwright, Adam Beard and Cory Hill, whore Elliot Dee, center Owen Watkin and wing Josh Adams are the ones who have made a significant impact in recent years.

A lot of blood, while the lions were in 2017, got through very well.

Wales is also a seriously tight unit. Many teams talk about the bond between them, and part of it is incorrect, but you believe with the guys from Gatland.

In the camp they play Gin Rummy in hotel lobbies, with Liam Williams and Gareth Davies often involved. They also have a team choir – run by Rhys Patchell and Leigh Halfpenny who also gather for a song and a laugh.

And during the Six Nations they came through real adversity as a group. Before Scotland was played at Murrayfield, the news emerged that the Ospreys and Scarlets would merge. Half of the team was worried about their future, Ken Owens – not only the skipper Scarlets but also the top player representative of the Welsh Rugby Players & Association – and student Wyn Jones went into diplomacy and leadership mode, with the latter having to go home travel for crisis talks about his region days for a test competition.

Controversial and angry, they won in Scotland and sealed the Slam the following week. There is no doubt that large bands were formed at the time.

An undefeated series of 14 tests – a national record – was terminated by England in Twickenham in the first warm-up match, but beating them in Cardiff brought Wales to No. 1 in the world ranking.

Talismanic captain Alun Wyn Jones to break the record of Wales during the World Cup

Jonathan Davies is a key figure for Wales outside center in both defense and attack

LIKELY STARTING XV

L Williams; North, J Davies, Parkes, Adams; Biggar, G Davies; N. Smith, Owens, Francis, Beard, AW Jones, Navidi, Tipuric, Moriarty.

They have played that title immensely and will secretly hate the hype. It almost feels against the national psyche to be a favorite for everything – and Gatland has been playing the underdog tag professionally for years.

But in his last World Cup with Wales there is no doubt that the Welsh must deliver.

They have a first XV with more than 700 caps of experience, a totemic leader in Alun Wyn Jones, fighting, dog, spirit and a special coach. Semi-finals are a must, and who knows?

WHAT WILL STOP THEM?

Warren Gatland

took over No. 11 Wales in World # 1 – albeit briefly – over a 12-year period, with four Six Nations victories , including two Grand Slams, the semi-final of the World Cup and the quarter-final of the World Cup. Oh, and a won and drawn series as a British and Irish lion head coach.

What do you like to sign off with World Cup glory before you go back to New Zealand.

If it's not New Zealand, who they can't beat (NB Three victories ever – in 1903, 1935 and 1953), then perhaps a dawn would realize that they were actually the World Cup could win by the end of October.

A lack of real attacking flair – despite the most powerful defense – may hinder them, especially now that Anscombe and Faletau are out, but if they reach the semi-finals or the final, it will be fascinating to see how Wales deals with the psychology of it all.

Cardiff is the most emotionally exciting rugby on the planet. Wales cannot bring the part of the Principality Stadium to Japan. It will be business crowds far away from the field in Tokyo and Yokohama – there will be in the Hymns and Arias, in the raw red-haired mobs that they roar home.

And if you look at the professional era (since 1995) how many enormously important distances, or neutral ground victories of Wales have against top sides?

In the 142 tests they have played from Cardiff since 1995, they have won 61. fewer than 10 are really remarkable – with six of the best listed below:

W 1945 England (a) 32-31 1999 (albeit nominally a & # 39; home game & # 39;)

W v France 24-18 2005 (on the way to the Grand Slam against the champions)

W v England (a) 26-19 2008 (the first match of Gatland, where they won 10 half played – time)

W v Ireland (n) 22-10 2011 (quarterfinals world cup in Wellington)

W v Ireland 23-21 2012 (with a late Leigh Halfpe nny penalty on the way to a Slam)

W v England (a) 28-25 2015 (to effectively knock England out of their world cup)

The most memorable triumphs of Wales have come to the cauldron of the Principality Stadium

Of those victories, there is a southern hemisphere team among them, only two outside the Six Nations, and three England victories (which have their own motivations).

So that's the history they have to break through in Japan. Do it during the World Cup, in the knockout stages, on neutral ground, against the top team in shape.

If they do, would I suggest using the £ 60 you won with the bet to buy a single train ticket to Cardiff for the homecoming party and a few pints? It could be the most monumental tear in history.

Any fried potato in Christianity served by Chippy Lane eateries will not be enough to include the drink that is consumed when Wales wins the world cup.

WALES AT WORLD CUPS

Depending on who you ask, they have either jumped enormously above their weight, fought in the face of adversity those bloody noses had handed out the way, or have never made the impact of their tradition, history and rugby tribes on the biggest stage.

Here is a short potted history of their World Cups past.

1987 – Undefeated Pole, Shocked England, Destroyed by New Zealand, Third to Defeat Australia

1991 – Ashamed by Western Samoa, Beaten by Wallabies and Out in the Groups .

1995 – All Black destruction and Ireland defeat make it back-to-back failures.

1999 – Samoa beats AGAIN, but reaches the last eight. Aussie loss with miles in new house.

2003 – Canada, Tonga, Italy reports. Mad ongoing loss for Kiwi & hope extinguished by England

2007 – Oh so bad. Rampant Fiji sent them out again at the polar stage with 38-34 epic

2011 – Oh so close. Fledglings fly to the semi-final before Sam Warburton brutally shoots them.

2015 – Oh the pain. Literally. Catastrophic injuries Curtail progress beyond Boks – but England defeated.

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#Wales Rugby World Cup preview: Warren Gatland’s side could not be in better shape"

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The real reason England had to lose its World Cup battle

For a couple of glorious World Cup weeks, the England football team lit up the planet. 

Young and diverse, talented and optimistic, they represented a shining future. Team players all, they provided a way forward for a national side too often tainted with yobs, nerves, and poor tactics predicated on superegos. Manager Gareth Southgate didn't just drive up sales of waistcoats (a.k.a. vests, if you're one of his many American fans) or atone for a decades-old penalty kick; he gave his nation a much-needed model of kindness, listening, loyalty, and masculinity.

I think a photo has just changed my mind on marriage. pic.twitter.com/d4HoCRuRIJ

— Susanna Reid (@susannareid100) July 12, 2018

So it came as a brutal awakening when England lost its semi-final clash with a ruthless, determined underdog, Croatia on Wednesday. Many fans had already lifted their sights to what seemed a pre-ordained World Cup final showdown with old enemy France. 

A country still divided by Brexit desperately wanted to stay focused on its heroes battling external foes, to keep rekindling the spirit of its now-mythic World Cup victory in 1966. 

But take heart, England fans. Having examined all possible alternate outcomes of the Croatia battle, like Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War, I'm here to tell you that there are very few versions in which England progressing to the World Cup final does not lead to further disaster for the country. 

In fact, losing to a scrappy team from a heroic war-torn country in extra time was pretty much the best outcome we could have hoped for, politically speaking.

First, you have to understand that British political careers can and have turned on England's World Cup fortunes. Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who won a healthy majority in 1966 and became associated with that team, likely lost the 1970 election because his world champions had exited the following tournament four days earlier. 

Right now, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson's political fortunes are on a knife edge. He resigned Monday in protest at Prime Minister Theresa May's "soft Brexit" proposal, which will probably preserve most of Britain's beneficial economic relationship with the European Union. He made sure a staged picture of him signing the resignation letter appeared in Tuesday's UK newspapers. 

If this were America you'd say "he's running," and indeed Boris or BoJo (as he is alternately known) may yet challenge Theresa May for the leadership of the Conservative party. If he ran and won, that would ineluctably lead to a no-deal "hard Brexit" with Britain crashing out of the EU in 2019 — an economic disaster so great that the government is planning to stockpile food and medical supplies just in case it happens. 

SEE ALSO: J.K. Rowling's brutal tweet just summed up the absolute state of British politics

Boris is often called the British Trump; like the president he's a clown, a blusterer, a cynical patriot and a keen opportunist. England's World Cup victory, which seemed within grasp the day he resigned, would have made for an unprecedented opportunity to sell the UK on the dangerous notion that it can go it alone on a world stage without risking calamity.

Here's a Boris speech from one of those alternate timelines where England brings the trophy home: "Now that our team are world champions, isn't it high time Britain becomes the world champion of trade? Let us abandon the lower leagues of the Euro Zone and seek victory in the knock-out stages of the global economy!" 

With that as his rallying cry — plus a cynical co-opting of the "Southgate spirit" — Boris pursues a bonkers summer-long, flag-waving, Churchillian campaign for "party leadership and Brexit leadership." Even going through to the World Cup final and losing to France doesn't preclude this outcome, as Boris is also adept at using grievance against the country's oldest enemy to his advantage. 

Here's what he has to say in that scenario: "The French may have cheated and defeated us on the pitch, so let's not hand them a victory on the world stage as well. Fight on! Never surrender!"

These Alternate Borises are playing to the xenophobic grassroots Conservative party membership, rather than the Members of Parliament that vote on the leadership matter. But as we've seen in the U.S., the tail is wagging the dog on the right wing these days. Terrified of their MAGA base, GOP reps allow themselves to be swept up by Trump's senseless fervor. 

What Conservative MP would dare vote against someone who is basking in the fervor of a historic victory, in a nation where beer-swilling supporters have changed their favorite chant to "two World Wars and two World Cups"? 

The winning future, and the Kraken of nationalism it awakes, looks ironically grim. A clown of a leader, Boris would have to follow the transatlantic lead of his fellow clown and every other risible authoritarian — they stop laughing when they fear you. Once a respected London mayor, Boris threw away much of his reputation when he teamed up with UKIP leader Nigel Farage to sway the Brexit referendum with a lie-filled campaign. Alternate Boris has no qualms about throwing in his lot with Trump, either. 

Even worse, just picture this possible future: Vladimir Putin flatters new PM Johnson over his country's victory on Russian soil; a summit is planned; a Trump-Putin-Boris "coalition of independent nations" results, with economic and military ramifications, and NATO looks even more doomed than it does now. 

SEE ALSO: Celebrate the Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Putin summit with this beautiful gold engraved Nokia phone

Is a hard Brexit and a Johnson premiership still possible, back in our reality? Certainly — but England's World Cup loss in the semi-finals just made the ground a hell of a lot less fertile for this nightmare seed.  

If it helps the catharsis, fellow England fans, try imagining a Back to the Future scenario where the world champion England team of 2019 somehow figured how to travel back in time to prevent the hard Brexit outcome. To stop the food riots and the rising racism to come, they need only replace their younger selves in the locker room at half time in the semi final. That would certainly explain why they suddenly seemed older, more scattered, their peak fitness gone, and why Kieran Trippier had such a supremely distracting injury. 

Changing the course of history to make themselves lose at the last minute and save the world: Now that's the Southgate spirit. 

On the upside, Gareth Southgate is now free to be Prime Minister #ENGCRO

— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) July 11, 2018

And after all, there's always 2022 — when the Brexit issue will have been resolved one way or the other, and BoJo will be less of a lingering threat. 

There do yet exist futures where football comes home after all. 

WATCH: Watch Zuckerberg’s face freeze after a far-right politician credited Facebook for Trump's win and Brexit

#_author:Chris Taylor #_uuid:48ecc2d3-ab09-3bb0-b543-57115968e688 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable